All That Was Left: Warfare
by The Storm Commando
Summary: In the Midst of the Fire Nation siege of Ba Sing Se, fuel for its vast War Machine are in dire need. Meeting this need, are children, specifically, those who have already endured and survived the hardships of a war-torn world. Among these are the survivors of a massacre at Citadel, a Fire Nation occupied slum. Now soldiers, these children must adapt to survive. Book 2 of ATWL
1. Prologue

I don't really remember much of what happened after that. Everything's just a haze when I think back on it. I can make out small events, but everything in between is just a blind spot in my memory. I remember being hauled up and carried through the Citadel gates into the military district as I watched the lifeless bodies of my past dissolve into the morning mist. I remember 5 different faces I didn't recognize looking down on me as I could feel finally feel the adrenaline fading away as the pain from my cuts and wounds finally came into the picture. What I remember most is what happened after that.

I was sitting up on a chair in front of a mirror, watching as my hair was being shaved away down to the point where only a small layer remained. I had never realized how long my hair was. I guess, it was to be expected as I could never remember getting a haircut in my entire life. I watched the longs locks fall on my shoulder, letting them pile atop one another as I lacked the energy to brush them off. I just sat there, my own reflection giving me that deadeye stare, devoid of life and energy. _I'm not supposed to be alive._ As I sat there, the realization hit me. I wasn't supposed to be there. Hell, maybe I wasn't. Maybe I did die there, on that street. Reincarnation wasn't a new concept. I sure as hell didn't recognize my own face in that mirror. Was I even that same slum kid who led over 30 people to their deaths? I saw their faces when a mirror was held to the back of my head as though asking how much I liked my newly shaven head.

I was told one thing in the slums my entire life, that nothing was more important than **survival**. That everything came down to just that. The people you associated with, the decisions you made, all of it. And I did just that for over 11 years. I survived. I kept my head low, I associated with people who I knew I had a good chance of surviving with. Then, less than 24 hours ago, I made a decision. I decided that there was more to life than survival. And now, because of that misguided decision, everybody I knew was dead. I stood in that steel hallway, lost because I hadn't heard where I was supposed to go next. Where there were supposed to be almost 20 of us, only I stood. The rest, everybody else, was dead. Mishi, Miro, Trap, Ladle, Riu, Danev, Reek. They were all dead, their corpses probably being picked over by looting slum kids and being nested by fucking maggots and flies while I stood here, concerned with a fucking haircut. I was it. Everything else was gone. My past was just that, the past. Gone now. I didn't survive those slums. Maybe if I had survived, and done just that, and not done anything more, there would be more of us, but I fucked up. And for it, it was just me. I was all that was left.


	2. Chapter 1: First Day

**Luke**

The uniform fit. Somehow, that was the most terrifying part of it. What kind of army made military uniforms to fit 11-year-old kids? Well, the Fire Nation apparently. I've been in this damn school for a little over a month now and it seems it's not just the slums that's made up of mostly kids. The military academy too by the looks of it. At least the academy they had inside the inner walls. I never realized how different an entire city could be when you crossed a few feet of steel plate wall. There wasn't trash lining the street. There weren't dead children rotting in the alleyways, attracting all means of vermin from rats to humans.

I didn't have to worry about my next meal or where I could get some water to get the lump of dryness out of my throat. It was all just some long gone foreign concern that didn't affect me anymore. I was beyond that. So why the hell did I feel like shit? I've been here for over a month and every time I woke up in that shared bunkroom, I nearly had a heart attack when it wasn't the sandcrete walls of the Hive around me, when there weren't 20 or so flies hovering around my shit bucket I had to swat out of the way to take a morning piss. No. I slept in a feather bunk, inside an insulated military complex, within a district surrounded by double layered steel walls, surrounded by that sandcrete hell. Did I feel safe? Hell no, I didn't.

I thought that it was adrenaline in the first few days. That I was having some problem getting over the last battle, much more the last 11 years of my life. Then, I thought it would just take some getting accustomed to. It wasn't. It's because not all of my old life was left behind, bleeding to death on that dirt floor. 2 weeks ago, I saw Danev again, alive. _I never saw his corpse_ , I realized later. I had taken Janick's words to be the truth when he told me he killed him. "Just shit he said to fuck with you." Danev told me after I told him about how I had thought he was dead.

Danev was dragged into the military district just like I was, half dead. He was in the medical bay for longer though, over 3 weeks by the looks of it. He showed me his scars, the one on his shoulder, one on his brow, and another on his ankle. I showed him the one from the arrow that went through my leg and the other from the spear. That's what set us apart from every other kid in this school of warfare. We had actually seen war. Not a war between two armies on a battlefield, but one far worse. One far more brutal. A war between savages with no ulterior motive save the total annihilation of the enemy. That's the kind of war we had seen.

We recognized the looks we got from the other children. They saw us and saw savages, slum rats. Who could blame them? They were right. We got those looks as we dressed in our barracks. Got them as they passed the table where Danev and I sat during meals. Got them still as I passed them in the hallways. I realized then it wasn't just hatred. It was fear. They kept their distance. I saw the curve they took as I walked passed them in the hallways, hugging the wall to avoid me. I saw their bunks slowly moving away from mine over the days as though I'd slit their throats in their sleep. _Maybe I would._ It was just a joke thought I'd have every now and then. Thought maybe I'd try and scare them. See how they reacted. They were just kids like me, they'd buy it. The teenagers on the other hand. That wasn't fear that their faces showed. It was hatred. They had different bunks, a different floor on the Citadel, but in passing, I'd hear the names they'd whisper, or hell, the name's they'd yell. They hated us and weren't shy to make it known.

Classes hadn't started yet. I spent 2 weeks in recovery. 2 in private classes where they saw how much I knew and how much I didn't. To their surprise, I knew how to read and write. Only thing I needed catching up on was Fire Nation culture and history as well as math. I had finished the basic classes just a few days ago and from what Danev told me, he was taking the same courses, having much less of a fun time than me.

I think I was the only one in the military district who found the class exciting. The other students in my class, those taking intensive history due to failing the actual course, slept through the class and the teacher didn't even care. She spouted the names, dates, and events as though she had said it a million times over. She probably had. The textbook they assigned us was the first book I had ever held. It was heavier than I imagined. I read through it in a week. It wasn't long. The Fire Nation had only been what it was for a little over a thousand years. Before that, it was an assortment of independent city states. Before that, small towns. Before that, tribes. Then before that was the Lion Turtles. That's the part they didn't print in the textbooks. I found that in the libraries. There was no one specific text that noted this as the Fire Nation's origins, but I put the events together. The first human settlements, the first harmonic convergence, all of it. It fit together too well.

It was something about history that interested me. The culture, and what they reflected of man. Politics and how they represented society and psychology. Government, and the nations they reflected. And War. Most of all war. War displayed all of these things. Culture, politics, government. Basically, what man was. There were the first unification wars of the Fire Nation when they city states all fought amongst each other for control, but a Fire Bender of extraordinary abilities unified the states and created the Fire Nation, crowning himself Fire Lord. The Civil War between the Royal Family and the Fire Island League that attempted to secede from the Fire Nation. I knew it was biased. All in favor of the Royal family, I assumed. But events did happen. I knew a civil war did happen and that the Nation was unified through war. What I couldn't trust was what caused these wars and what ended them. Nonetheless, it was history.

For me classes started in 3 days. We were in the middle of some holiday that celebrated the founding of the first Fire Bender settlement on the land rather than a lion turtle's back. I didn't know what to expect in all honesty. I knew it would be hostile. I wasn't stupid. The extent to which I couldn't say. I was preparing for the worst.

3 days past and classes began. I got my schedule. It was basics. Math, history, literature. It was about as hostile as I had expected. I was seated in the back of my classes. I was never called on to speak and if I was, it was only for the questions they knew I didn't know. I knew what this was, but I wasn't fighting it. It was this or being back out in the slums, beating some kid to death for a scrap of meat. I wasn't complaining. But they were.

I was an afterthought in those classes. I wasn't grouped, I wasn't chosen, I wasn't accounted for. This wasn't shit that got me crying in a corner, wondering why I had no friends. It got me pissed. I knew why I was here and they made no effort of proving me wrong. I was a soldier here and these were technicalities. These classes weren't for me. They were for paperwork. The second I passed these classes, they would stick me in the other classes. The real classes. This was a military school. Everybody knew that. When I finished my classes and headed back to barracks, the rest of the kids bore their Fire Nation uniforms proudly and reported for duty. I was sent back to my barracks where I studied the math I knew, the history I had already memorized, and the books I had already read.

Danev joined the teenagers in their class. We had different barracks, different classes, different floors. For all intents and purposes, he **was** dead. I hadn't decided if I was glad to see him yet or not. When I saw him that first time, passing in a hallway, it was a happy reunion to be sure. There was hugging, maybe a few tears, questions as to what happened that day, all of it. I had said before that the reason I felt so out of place was because not all of my past was left in the slums. Some of it still walked around in the same building as me. I finally came to a decision that it wasn't a bad thing. It was the one thing that made me different from all these other kids who were born and raised in the lap of luxury. I knew everything they were preparing me for. I knew survival. I knew what war was. The only thing they had to teach me was how to fight **their** war. I acknowledged where I came from. It wouldn't slow me down and I wouldn't let it be used against me. I wasn't trained from birth to be a soldier, I was raised in a battleground to **be** a soldier, a survivor. This wasn't any difference and Danev and I had the one thing no other kids in this city had, experience.

I was ready for this.


	3. Chapter 2: Warrior

**Luke**

One way in which life was different from what it had been on the slums, the days just seemed to blend together now. There was nothing really distinguishing them from each other anymore. I woke, I ate, I studied, I ate, I studied, I slept. And all that went by in less than 24 hours, so I knew I couldn't rely on this to tell me when I was. There weren't any windows in the military academy section of the school. They said it was to avoid distractions. We were on the 5th floor of the Citadel main building. I guess such distractions were the sun, or moon perhaps considering the anonymity of my schedule.

The more time I spent here, the more I started remembering the slums, as thought it was slowly coming back to me. Every time I woke up, I thought of maybe Reek, Riu, Ladle, all of them. The more time I spent here, the more that the sense of luck I had began dimming. I started noticing the other kids more. Maybe I was just becoming more aware of it or they were stepping up their aggressiveness, but they **were** getting bolder. Before, they'd just kept their distance. They feared us. Maybe we didn't do enough to live up to their expectations of us, but soon enough, they started murmuring insults under their breath in passing. Later, they would say it out loud. It didn't so much as bother me as it pissed me off that I was allowing myself to let my predetermined reputation die down. It came down to that whole "fear or loved" debate. I guess I preferred the former.

I had been in this school for over 2 months now and things weren't getting better. The students and teachers alike proved for once creative when it came to ways to screw me over. My grades were shit, I lost time in study hall to take excess classes. For all their creativity in fucking with me, it was clear they despised me, but they seemed to fail to consider that the more they fucked me over, the more time I would spend with them. Guess that part eluded them, or they were just making my life as miserable as possible until the inevitable.

It was during lunch, or dinner, or hell, maybe even dinner when I was called up to the principal's office. They even got messengers to deliver the message as though it were some huge formality. I dismissed it at first. It was a few hours later when I saw Danev while passing in the hallways. I was surprised he was awake, and even on my floor.

"What are you doing down here?" I asked jokingly. "I thought we were beneath you."

"Literally and rhetorically."

"Rhetorically? You just learn that word today?"

"Screw off." He said, chuckling. "I'm supposed to ask one of the fighting instructor's down here for extra equipment. We broke one of our training dummies."

"How do you break a training dummy?"

"Who said **I** broke it?"

"You kind of just did."

"Turns out the kids here nor the equipment here is built for the way we fight on the streets."

"You're actually getting training up there?"

"Yeah. Why? You're not?"

"You kidding me? They're putting me in intensive classes like I'm some sort of idiot. I know they're fucking with me, but I haven't been put in a single combat class yet. Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose of letting us inside here if they're not putting us to use?"

"They'll probably take you out of that class soon. I've seen you fight. You're wasted in a classroom."

"Wait a minute. Are you implying something about my intelligence? But now that you mention it, I was called up to the principal's office a few hours ago."

At that, he couldn't help but smile and shake his head. "And a few hours later, you're still standing here. If he wasn't calling you up to throw you back into the slums before, he is now. Get your ass up there before he decides to save the slums the trouble and kills you right here." He left.

I knew he was joking. I wasn't an idiot, but still, that idea of me leaving this place alone was what had delayed me. I figured Danev was right. Waiting would only make it worse.

I finally learned that it was nighttime when I was admitted into his office. It was the first window I had seen in months. I knew it wasn't standard for this place. Most kids went home to their parents after school hours. They slept on an actual schedule and got actual meals. The other ones, orphans like Danev and myself or those with nowhere else to go, well, we got the master treatment. I couldn't help but think it was an experiment of sorts for the Fire Nation. What they hoped to accomplish, I couldn't imagine.

I saw him sitting at his desk. He looked different from Zar'un. Older. Had a look of wisdom to it. I felt a strange sense of comfort wash over me as though something was telling me this wasn't somebody I would have to dodge and weave around. So, I told myself, I would just do what I did best. Charm the shit out of my problems.

"Please" he said. "Sit."

I read the name printed on the small nametag atop his desk. _Gaz-di. Combination of an Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation name. Probably colonial._ "You like the name tag?" _Fuck._

"Just wanted to get to know your name before we began a conversation."

"So, you've been in this school for a little over 3 months now and you still don't know my name?"

"Of course, I do. Sure, I just learned it, but I know **now."**

He chuckled. "You said you wanted to learn my name before we began a conversation. What kind of conversation are you expecting?"

"Well. More than likely my amazing grades. My top-notch combat training, my above-average intellect, at least something along those lines."

"More or less close enough."

I tried to suppress a laugh at that, but just ended up emitted a completely stupid snort that made me regret taking a sarcastic approach at this discussion.

"You laugh, but I'm not joking. Your teachers hate you, that much is obvious. You're probably wondering why you're being tossed into these bullshit classes after we pulled you off those streets to be a soldier. This isn't the streets and there's a way we have to do things here, dumb as they are. We're forced to throw anybody below the age of 12 into actual classes to get an analysis of their skills and who they are before we put them into combat courses. Your friend Danev was old enough to skip through that though. His training is going well from what I hear despite the complaints from his teachers."

"You don't seem to be complaining much. In fact, you seem rather at odds with these teachers. You falling for us slum-kids already? We tend to have that effect."

"I guess I am. Unlike your brilliant teachers, I'm from the Earth Kingdom. The colonies, yes, but still this continent, though Azulon would disagree. Your teachers have the pleasure of being from the homeland. There tends to be a lack of colonials signing up for the field of education. I proved my worth and here I am, holding power over mainlanders. Nonetheless, you're done with your three-month formality. That bullshit is out of the way. I learned all I needed to know about you while you and Danev were recovering from that slaughter on the streets. I know you're smart. How else could you not only convince the leader of our garrison, but two violent gangs to follow a single plan that would result in mutual success and prosperity. Zar'un told me what you had planned. It was smart, I'll say that."

I wasn't expecting the conversation to turn in this direction. I came in, ready to joke to the end until I was thrown back out onto the streets. It even seemed appealing. Going back. Sure, I might miss the food, water, and beds, but, was it really worse. If I was sent back, I decided I would just leave the city. I knew where the exit was. I knew I could just walk out. Security was shit. But here I was, being complimented for a plan that got all my friends and family killed. "Smart, was it? Even the part where everybody I knew got killed in a gang war in the middle of the street?"

"We heard what happened. Word travels quick on the street and we try to make sure we're caught up to date. Zar'un's new idea of keeping the garrison here in good health. 'Know what the enemy' is planning at all times'."

"So, we're the enemy now?"

"No. You're Fire Nation now. You're one of us now. You're not getting kicked out today despite what you may have come in thinking. In regard to your plan, you couldn't have expected it to go that way. We can't blame you. You're smart. Not just for your age, but for anyone. And you're strong too. You can't survive as long as you have on the streets without being strong. These 3 months are out of the way. I won't bother wasting your time or mine any more with having you locked in that social experiment of the Superintendent. Sadistic is what it is. Locking children in the dark, with no source of knowledge save the teachers to program nice, young, strong, and obedient soldiers for the Fire Nation. We're moving you up to your friend's level. You'll pack your bags and move up to the 7th floor with the upper classmen. You'll receive combat training in melee and archery. You'll be put into a military strategy course as well. The rest will be PT"

 _No._ "Upper classmen? You mean teenagers. There's a small difference between the kids my age and the teenagers. The kids, they snigger and sneer and curse me out, but that's as far as it goes. Teenagers, bigger and worse, you're asking for trouble."

"Would you rather be stuck on the 5th floor in absolute darkness, learning crap all day long?"

 _I_ _ **came**_ _here, expecting to be thrown out. Expecting to go back home._ I didn't say anything however. I wasn't going to get myself thrown out. I wouldn't say the words. I came here, expecting fate to have done that for me already, but here I was, being fucking promoted. I lowered my head and shook it in refusal. I wouldn't go back to the bullshit I had suffered in the last 3 months. It would be hell up there, but at least I would be reminded of why I was here in the first place.

"Then gather your things. You start learning how to be a soldier tomorrow."


	4. Chapter 3: The Black Wall

**I** **roh**

 _Earth. The element of stubbornness. Ba Sing Se was no exception. We have been hammering at their walls for over 8 months now and still, their walls were holding. The men guarding this city, they were no exception either. It is amazing what fighting on the home front can do for men. Everything is at stake for them. Their homes, their livelihoods, their families. They believe that if we breach their walls, we will sack their city, leaving it only a ruin. When I arrived, of course, I asked they surrender. Judging by the fact I am still here, commanding artillery against that magnificent wall, is a pretty clear sign it did not go as planned._

 _Despite my soldiers fighting on a foreign land, thousands of miles from their homes, morale has never been higher. They are standing at their enemies' capitol, ready to end this night 95-year war, once and for all. But when I look at those walls, I wonder how many more years this war will last. I could stand here for the next 5 years, doing what I'm doing now, raining artillery on them, and I would be here when this became a 200-year war. I will not bring down this monstrosity of a wall out of sheer will or persistence. I cannot hope to starve the enemy out. The area alone between their 2 walls alone is nearly as large as the entire Fire Nation mainland and its entirely dedicated to greenspace and farming._

 _This is not a normal siege. I knew it wouldn't be when I marched my troops here. We could see the walls from the edge of the serpant's head. I ferried my men across that massive body of water, intentionally avoiding the serpant's pass. I had heard the tales. I had never seen the creature for myself, but I had an interest in it I hoped to satiate on the march back, after we took the city of course. I took 10 days just to ferry my force across. My son, Lu Ten, he continues to surprise me more and more as the days go by. He volunteered to lead an advance force across the serpant's pass to scout it out and perform reconnaissance on the landing site. I refused of course. It was called the serpant's pass for a reason, and not for the curves its mountainous path took. Rumors or not, I wouldn't take that risk with my son. He had his 24_ _th_ _name day outside these walls, around 7 months ago, now. I insisted we celebrate. I had talked to the men under his command. They adored him, looked up to him for inspiration that he was always willing to provide. When I suggested we celebrate to Lu Ten, he smiled, and said, we'll celebrate in the Earth King's palace after we've taken the city. "That may take years" I told him. He smiled, and said, "Then we'll just have to wait and bunch them all together." He led an attack against an Earth Kingdom outpost that was performing reconnaissance on our camp that very night. Said it was enough of a name day gift to bring all of his men back to camp alive. His battalion killed 279 Earth Kingdom soldiers, taking another 473 captives. His casualties were only at 47 injuries. All minor._

 _I have the unfortunate task of being his father and his commander. When he returned to camp, the former kicked in first. I sped walked towards him, looking over his body for any injuries. I know he was embarrassed. The chuckles coming from the men under his command reminded me of my other duty. I asked of the results of his mission which was when he delivered the good news of his victory. I couldn't have asked for a better son. I don't know what I did for the spirits to earn this gift. He had my sense of humor, and her mother's wits, spirits bless her. I still saw her in my dreams some nights. An arranged marriage it was, at the insistence of my lord father. I was still I young man then. Stronger, faster, and definitely lighter. It was the strange occurrence when an arranged marriage could work out so well. At least, it did in the beginning. When we tried for a child, there would be no result. It continued that way for years. I saw doctors, I consulted ancient writings on the spirits, but could find no help. When I spoke with the Fire Sages, they told me the problem was within me. Not with my body, but with my soul. They allowed me to enter the sanctuary of Avatar Roku to seek enlightenment. I thought the idea ridiculous at first, but then again, I was young, and stubborn too. Much like my nephew. At least, last time I had seen him._

 _I felt no change within me. I cursed the spirits, I cursed the avatar, I cursed it all. As I left, the volcano of crescent island erupted. Seeing the destruction awaiting the temple, I ordered my ship to turn around, yet mid turn, when I looked back on the island, the smoke had cleared, the lava had entered the sea, and the temple stood. I asked the other men on the ship if they had seen what I had. They had, and they were just as amazed as I was. I felt as if I had seen the wrath and power of the spirits. I returned to the island, despite seeing it was in perfect condition. With minutes left of the winter solstice, I ran inside and begged forgiveness. I saw the eyes of the long dead avatar light and was pushed out by a gush of wind out of the sanctuary, seconds before that door closed for another year._

 _That same night, we conceived my son. He was born of perfect health, wide eyed, crying the second he left his mother._

I saw wet spots begin to form on the paper on the desk in front of me. I looked above me, half expecting rain until remembering I was inside a tent. I wiped the tears from my eyes as I folded the paper and stuffed it nicely with the rest. Writing was something I had had no lack of in recent days.

Lu Ten had left some 4 hours ago to analyze the day's damage of artillery and located weak spots for tomorrow's bombardment. The days now were long and loud, consisting of rearranging catapults, trebuchets, scorpions, and some cannon devices with projectile bombs launched by our firebenders.

I was no fan of these cannons. They struck me as sloppy and crude. Neither though, was I fond of catapults and trebuchets, and sieges in general. There was an art to defeating an opponent that was no opponent at all, but the will of a city combined, especially one so fierce as the one I stood down now.

I walked outside my tent and was shocked at how dark the sky already was. I had forgotten that it now set sooner with the change in times we were experiencing. I saw no trace of my son, but then again, that was no surprise, the camp was large, housing over 50,000 soldiers. He could be anywhere, dining, or drinking if he would be so foolish as to do so before telling me he was back.

The artillery had ceased Fire for the moment, waiting for them to return as to avoid friendly fire. They were to resume fire by midnight should they not return, under the pretense they were dead or captured.

Just thinking about Lu Ten in such a fashion brought about an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach that I couldn't rid myself of. _He's fine. He_ _ **is**_ _fine._ I looked up to the sky, looking for the moon. There was none. _New moon. They will have a hard time finding their way back to camp._ I returned to the hill on which my tent was placed. Rather than entering, I stood at the entrance. In the darkness of the new moon night, you could hardly make out the walls with the naked eye. But having experienced over 7 new moons now, you could tell it was there. The completely black horizon contrasting against the dark blue sky. It was there, we all knew it, but for some reason, we appreciated these such night where we forgot there was an attack at all. Gave the men a much-needed respite from the fighting. _Maybe I would order there be no artillery tonight. Allow the men to spend a night away from the war. And not put my son in harm's way._

"Father?" I heard his voice ask from my side, as though my thoughts had formed right beside me. I turned, thinking it was my imagination, but there he was. My son. I looked quickly, expecting to see his battalion behind him. When I saw none, I rushed forward and grabbed him in a quick hug. He hugged back, and we parted.

"It's a new moon tonight. Why scout on a new moon?"

"Because, just as we cannot see them, they cannot see us. We looked at the marks our artillery left. It's as we expected. Nothing. Just surface damage. Some of our bombs didn't even explode on impact. We defused them and returned them, but you were right, we're not taking down the wall that way. We need to find another way."

"You've been closer to their wall than I have. What do you suggest?"

"I would suggest digging beneath it, but that would a slow process. When the sun rises, they would see us, and close the earth around us. We may be able to sneak 1 or 2 fireteams in the middle of the night. Have them see what they can do from the inside, but they would be entirely cut off from us with no way to update us on their status."

"I see. Is there anything else?"

"No, father. Not yet. At this point, artillery is only good for one thing, keeping them from attacking us. Did you get any words from the other attack camps? The other generals?"

"None so far. I expect their hawks to come at the end of this moon which is still weeks away."

"Very well father. If I may, might I get some rest?"

"You mean drink with your men?"

"I-well"

A slight flushed shade rose to his face. I couldn't keep it in much longer and burst out laughing. "Of course. Enjoy yourself. While you're out there, tell the artillery there will be no fire tonight. Let the men get some respite from the war. Let them sleep in, whatever they need."

"Yes father. Thank you!"

As he rushed down the hill, I yelled "Be responsible!"

"How couldn't I be?" he yelled back.

I chuckled to myself as I watched him disappear amongst the city of tents. I was the luckiest general in this world. I had the best son and the best soldiers serving under me. This war may last years, but as long as these are the men I am fighting besides, I wouldn't have it any other way.


	5. Chapter 4: Nightingale Effect

**Danev**

I hated the infirmary at Citadel. When you come in, there's no guarantee you're going to get what you came for, or, more accurately, what you were dragged in for. And when it came to Luke and me, that was more often than not. I talked to Luke and turns out it wasn't just me who was put in a higher age group for combat training. Luke was being paired with 13 and 14-year olds while I was being put up against 15 and 16-year olds here. I'm fucking 14 and they're kicking my ass. Street tricks can only keep me on my feet for so long before I'm overwhelmed in terms of size and training. Yes, maybe it did make sense. We were learning. Learning how to beat bullshit odds that we more than likely would face in an actual battlefield, but when it came to the present, it hurt like hell.

I managed to somehow get some attention at this infirmary even if that attention meant a rag, some ice, and instructions to hold it against the bruise covering most of my left shoulder. It looked like shit and **hurt** like shit too. Aside from the terrible service, there was some spirit awful décor fit for a 5-year-old: fire nation clowns hanging from the ceiling with fire coming out of their ears while holding red and black balloons. I've never been to the Fire Nation, but this décor wasn't doing the country any favors. I was situated in a small room with 3 other beds, all empty at the moment. Slow day. Guess the students were too busy focusing on Luke and me to turn their attention to one another. I heard the door to my small room open and saw who it was entering.

 _Well. I guess there's one good thing about the infirmary._ "Wow." The nurse said upon seeing my mangled body on this same bed once again. "What does that make it? 5 days?"

"Aww. You counting the days now? How sweet, but it's been 11 days. I remember my last time here very well." _I took a sword near a, well, important organ, and, needless to say, I've never seen a professional such as a nurse so flustered._

"Apparently you don't remember so well, but that's probably the case with half the times you're here. You took that hit to the side of your head, remember? Can't blame you if you don't."

"I thought they took me straight to the barracks."

"Nope. Got a good luck at you first. I'm the only reason your head doesn't hurt beyond belief right now. Speaking of which, how **is** your head."

"Hurting beyond all belief now that you bring it up." I said, giving her that same grin I always gave her when I was brought here."

"Aww. Poor baby." She said mockingly, giving me a fake pair of pouty eyes.

She was a nurse, yes, but young. Very young. I was pretty sure she wasn't a real nurse, but just a student in the combat medicine branch. Her name was Zaydi, and I could've sworn I saw her in passing before.

"So. When do you think I can get out?"

"Depends on your shoulder. How's it feel?"

I gave it a flex in a stretch. There was some lingering pain, yes, but more or less, it felt fine.

"Feels fine, doc. I'm ready to get back out there before I become institutionalized."

She chuckled. "It feels fine because I force fed you ginger tea while you were writhing in bed. It's amazing what the human body can resist when adrenaline is flowing through you. Once that wears off, though, well, the human body becomes quite the vulnerable thing. Tell me how you feel a few hours from now." She finished as she checked a few last items before heading out.

"Which time would you say was the worst?" I asked, hoping to get her to stay a while longer.

She closed the door in front of her, and moved back towards the center of the room, leaning on the wall, thinking. "Probably that first time where you and your buddies got dragged in here."

 _I had almost forgotten about that. Aden and Meeko. One dead, the other comatose._

She continued. "One was dead when he was brought in, the other near dead. You were unconscious at first. Had a nice big hole in your leg. Took a while to patch-no wait. The second time was definitely worse."

"I **do** remember the second time better."

"Had a hole in your side from a spear, an arrow right below your knee, and the cut from a sword across your chest. How's that scar looking, by the way?"

I lifted my shirt for her to get a look. It wasn't the dark red it once was, but the cut was still obviously there. Big. Impressive too, I'd say.

"Well." She said. "At least you're going to have some stories to tell your grandchildren."

I laughed. "Was that your idea of a joke, Zaydi? I'll be lucky if I get to see the actual battlefield at this rate."

"Oh, quit your whining. Yes, they're beating the shit out of you, but you're not going to die. Not here. You have an entire continent of people who want to do that for you."

"Gee. Thanks. Just the pep talk I needed."

I tried thinking of something else. To change the subject. But she had got me thinking about Aden again. Somehow, she knew just what I was thinking about.

"Do you want to see him?"

"Aden?" I asked, confirming the subject of her question.  
"No. The Fire Lord. Yes, Aden. Let's go."

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him. I hadn't seen him since the day I left the military district with the request for Riu and Aden didn't have a full grown blonde beard last time I saw him.

"Wow. Thanks for taking care of him." I said, making sure to emphasize the sarcasm.

"Alright. Don't blame me. I'm a woman. How the hell should I know how to shave?"

"You're right. You're right. I'm sorry." I said, raising my hands in defense. "I shouldn't blame you for his shitty condition."

"Thank you." There was a pause as we looked at his body a while longer.

"But you could at least bathe him. He smells like shit. What is that?"

" **That** is the smell of shit and piss combined. Now, if you would be so helpful, fetch some sheets while I change your friend here."

When I came back with new sheets for his bed, the old ones where piled on the floor with an all to foul stench rising from it. I **did** recognize that smell, just never in a place like this. I smelled it in the streets of Citadel too many times. The smell of the last remains of the dead. I remembered those times as I made the bed with Zaydi, watching two people from my old and new life right next to each other.

"Well. You always complain about how bad of a patient I am, but at least I never shit myself like this."

She turned to me, a devious grin on her face as she finally got Aden's legs onto the newly made bed with my help. "You're kidding, right? You were worse."

"What? Nooo."

"Yeah, but I doubt you'd remember. I've changed you more times than I can count now."

 _The idea of that threw me off._ "Wait." I said aloud, gathering my thoughts. "You-"

"Changed your diapers once a day" she finished.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well. You changed him. You changed me. I just want to know-"

"Who among you two impressed me more? Do you spend a lot of time thinking of what's down there?"

"What? No. I-"

"I suppose I can't blame you. You've been on the street with him for 13 years in a gang of boys with no women. I always wondered how-"

"That's not what I mean. Just-"

I could feel the heat rushing to my face. I tried to dismiss it, but it wasn't doing any good. I had dug myself a hole and was already shoveling the fresh layer of dirt.

"I'll help you out before you make a bigger ass of yourself. He doesn't have an impressive scar like you do." And with that, she left.

She still didn't answer my question. I looked over at Aden's newly changed body. Had a thought, but immediately decided against it. I wasn't going to go there. Not now. Not ever. I had an answer that was good enough for me.


	6. Chapter 5: Ability

**Luke**

"Again!" the Instructor called from where he stood on the sidelines. I was barely on my feet and my vision had barely cleared before I felt his foot enter my side, sending me into a stagger. This time, I managed to keep my footing. Improvement if there was any. I shook my head, trying to force the blur of the room out of my eyes. Soon enough, I could make out Zihe standing in front of me. 14 years old, big, mean, my usual opponent; I don't know what kind of retard put us in the same weight group, but judging by the encouraging calls of "Good form, Zihe!", "Catch him off guard!" from the instructor, I more or less had a good idea.

He rushed. I didn't have the time I needed to decide how to react and settled for stepping to the side. It worked well enough and he was forced to halt his advance. I took the brief pause and before I knew it, I had my arms around his waist, trying to push him back. It was the dumbest thing I could have done. Anyone with eyes could see that and the laughs from the crowd proved as much. _I'm not beating him by matching him. I have to be smarter. Quicker._ There was no time to be smarter. Or quicker for that matter. He grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me back to the point where I near tripped over myself, but once again, managed not to fall. I didn't last long, however. He charged, and this time, he brought me to the ground.

He was on top of me now and I knew how it went from here. While I brought my arms up to defend my face, I already started thinking about the infirmary. I've had my fair share of visits there. The only relief was the nurse who was one of the few half-decent people in this damned military district.

The first of his punches came. The huge idiot was predictable. He went for the face first, but only found my forearms, blocking my face from one hell of a disfiguration. All my time in this ring and if I was a champion in anything, it was telling the time. Matches were 1 and a half minutes in length. I imagine it took him maybe a good 30 seconds to bring me to the ground. Did I have it in me to block his onslaught for another minute? His second punch answered that question, breaking my defense. _53 seconds left._ I forgot all about time when his left hook made contact with the side of my head. My vision became a blur, but somehow, the bell sounded. _Over already?_

"Again! Zihe! There are more valuable locations than the face. If you're toe to toe with an enemy in unarmed combat in the heat of battle, you won't have time to kill your foe. You must ensure he may never fight again. Go for his vital limbs this time. May I recommend the legs?"

"Yes, Coach! Sorry Coach!"

I couldn't help but smile at the pure ridiculousness of the situation. "Any advice for me, coach?" I asked between coughs as I rose to my feet.

I didn't need my vision to see the cold stare he gave me.

The bell sounded, and my vision wasn't back yet. 1 minute and 30 seconds. Thank spirits it wasn't the coach who held the bell.

This time, I didn't dare stand still. I moved. I hopped from leg to leg. Right then left then right, forward, there was no pattern to it. I kept moving until maybe I could make out where the hell he was in my vision. When I could finally make out where he was, it was nearly too late. He went for a grapple, but I dodged to the right. Unfortunately, I had dodged to the right a few more times than I should have and hit the ropes of the ring. He swung at my head, but I ducked. There was a small gap between his vessel of a body and the ropes. I dodged under it, escaping his attempted grapple. I was behind him and the cruiser of a teenager hadn't yet turned around. I would consider it a victory if I could get a single hit at him.

I felt that same anger I felt every day here rise inside of me. I focused it all on that one arm and swung at his side, fists clenched. My knuckles made contact with his bare side and judging by the way he shifted to the side and the grunt that came out of his mouth, I knew that, at least in my point of view, I could consider the day a victory. That was the first time I had landed a hit on him. I didn't get the chance to savor the victory. I could see the backhand for a fraction of a second before it took me in my head and off of my legs. I fell against the rope, leaning against it. He took the coach's advice. He kicked at my right leg. Luckily for me, it was a bit below the knee. I didn't break, but I could hardly tell through the pain. I fell to my knees, my body still hugging the rope.

He punched at my face. It landed. My head swung back so severely I could see the crowd behind me. Suddenly, I felt his weight shift. I felt two arms grab my right arm. One at the shoulder, one at the forearm. _No._ Before he could break the bones inside of me, I swung with my left arm, focusing that same rage that had served before. It landed straight on his right ear, sending him backwards. I managed to slip my arm out of his grasp until, with a speed unbefitting of him, he tackled me to the ground and promptly placed both hands around my neck. "You little fuck!" he yelled through the blood in his mouth.

This time, my vision wasn't blurring the way it normally did all at once. It was more gradual and was actually blackening. I knew I was about to pass out. The only thing that stood between me and a much-needed nap was the bell. It sounded, but it took the third sounding of the bell to get him off of me.

I lay flat on my back in the middle of the ring as Zihe stalked off to his corner for a nice drink of water and moral encouragement. I coughed, trying for whatever air I could take in, spitting out blood that promptly came back down, spattering over my face.

I was still on my back when the coach yelled "Again! Hide, take a break. Dazni, get in there! Luke, you're staying." _What the actual fuck._

"No sir!" I heard a voice call from the sidelines. From where I lay on my back, I looked over to where the voice had come from. In the seats, stood Dazni, shaking his head. "He's had enough, sir!"

For the first time in the session, the coach turned away from me where I was getting my ass handed to me and turned towards Dazni, the tall, brown haired boy in the stand. Despite being one of the more fit of the class, he was rather humble about it and not a complete dick, a surprise to be sure in this school, but a welcome one. While the yelling ensued, I stood up, slowly albeit.

"Do you have a problem, Dazni?"

"I won't fight him."

"And why's that? Lost your nerve already?"

"He's had enough!"

"I will decide when he's had enough! At least Luke doesn't bitch when life isn't going the way he wants!"

At this point, I was leaning against the rope, drinking from a bottle of water I had left sitting by the corner. More of the contents of the water was blood at this point, but when it came down mixed with the water, it was hard to tell the difference. _If I could make the words come out, maybe I would bitch._ Still, it was the closest to a compliment I had received today. I took it for what it was worth. As little as that was.

"Luke!" I had his voice shout at me. "You up for another?"

I was an idiot to think it would end there. I gave him a thumbs up as I took another drink from the bottle. I couldn't speak. My eyes were swollen and couldn't even really see where he was in the first place. I could've been talking straight to Zihe for all I knew.

"Hmm. Maybe you **have** had enough. You're dismissed for the day. Report to the infirmary. I'll see you next class."

I didn't really remember much of what came afterwards. I knew I left the dojo and at some point, in the hallways, I decided not to go to the infirmary, but just head to my dorm. I had no intention of more talking or social contact today. I just know that I closed the door behind me and woke up a few hours later on the cold steel floor.

My head was pounding, and my entire body was sore. Some of the cuts had already scabbed over. The bleeding had stopped, but dried blood could be found on the steel floor. _I'll clean that later._ I only realized then I had left my bottle at the dojo. They must have thrown it away by now. _Damnit!_ My left eye was still closed and had to pry it open with my left hand to clean the sleep out of it with my right. My throat was dry and could barely cough. I tried to stand but failed miserably and just fell to the steel floor with a loud _clank._

I had an exam today. Or maybe tomorrow. I didn't know what time it was. _Had I already slept through the night?_ I Made a second attempt to stand, this time using my bed for support. I managed to get myself up to a stand of sorts, left arm resting on the door with the other on the bed. I looked back to the floor where I had been lying, and judging by the blood, maybe it would have been a good idea to go to the infirmary. It was too late for that now. I saw the sun outside. It was going to be a busy day. On the bright side, today wouldn't require sitting in class. Today was a war game. When the clock struck 8, the exam began. 60 ten-minute periods of constant planning. That's what the military tactics class was. We'd be presented with scenarios and the goal was to formulate strategies with available resources to overcome these obstacles.

Quizzes would be shorter. Just an hour with 6 ten-minute periods. We'd be given an event ranging from enemy raids to natural disasters. We'd have ten minutes to draft a plan on how to counter and overcome these difficulties while still progressing towards an ultimate goal of victory over the enemy force. If your force was defeated, it was a failure for the exam. If you failed to meet your objective by the end of the hour, you failed. Passing required absolute victory. The quizzes we got all at once were easy. There were right answers. If the enemy attacks you while your men are busy cooking a meal, obviously, you order them to stop eating. You order your scouts and guards to stall the enemy while your main force equips until they're ready to face the enemy. It was the specifics that were the hard part. Accounting for the details. Maybe you forgot to mention the komodo rhinos. For missing a detail, the next report will show how the fighting startled them, starting a stampede that killed 15 of your men. Most students in my class would finish a report in 3 minutes and fuck around for the over 7. They'd do the same thing today.

I washed my face in the shared bathroom between my dorm and another. The room next to mine was empty. Had been for a while by the looks of it. I looked inside. It hadn't even been cleaned. It looked like it had been cleared by someone in a rush. Belongings quickly picked up in a hurry. I usually kept the door to that room closed. The dust had a way of messing with my nose. I grabbed the washcloth that would generally belong to my neighbor and used it to wash the blood on my face and neck. The water in my basin was already bloody so I turned to my "neighbors" which I always made sure to refill as well. I used that clean water to wash the rest of my body before using the last bit of clean water to wash and dry the floor.

I hadn't exactly slept well on that steel floor, but it would have to do. I looked outside. I used to be able to tell the time of the day by looking at the shadow of the wall, but now, it was so far away I could barely make out the outer wall. I was just a gray haze in the distance. Still, the skills applied to the inner wall, to which I turned my focus. It was already past 8. The test began at 9.

I changed clothes, throwing my blood and sweat soaked shirt and shorts to the corner in the bathroom. I changed into the military school uniform, the uncomfortable vest, gauntlets, all of it. When I had first seen it, I knew it more or less resembled the armor of the soldiers. I had seen enough of them to notice the similarities. It didn't matter. While I broke fast in the mess hall where only a few other students I recognized from my class ate, I began thinking over what we'd get. The quizzes we took as a class were fine. It was the personal exams we took that I failed. There, there weren't any right answers. There, the teacher could throw whatever bullshit she deemed fit my way. I've found myself facing thousands more soldiers than my reports stated. I've had volcanoes go off behind my camp. I've had all my men defect in the first 20 minutes because of "bad leadership style." And when it came to the war games, it was the same teacher who determined how well we did. I would be pitted against another student and it didn't matter who. Whoever I found myself facing, I'd be the target, the one she hated most.

I couldn't give her leeway. I couldn't miss any details. I had to have a perfect knowledge of my surroundings. Send scouts not just once, but twice to analyze what might be considered a basic factor just to ensure I couldn't be screwed over. I walked over to the class after breakfast. A few other students were in the class, discussing the exam. I pushed past them up to the main desk. I shifted through some of the few files that remained and found the one with my name listed on it. I was the only one without any last name, a fact the students were sure to remind me of on a daily basis. I've heard jokes about my dad running the second I was born, my mother killing herself because I was so ugly, all manners of juvenile creativity. When everybody had gathered in the classroom, files in hand, we waited by the door until that bell rang.

I think I was the only one to take it seriously, probably because I wasn't just being pitted against another student, but a teacher who hated me as well. I closed to door to my dorm behind me, locking it. I unsealed the file, pouring its contents out on the desk in front of me. I still felt filthy from the night before but didn't let it bother me. There were more important things to worry about. I found the preliminary report and read through it.

 _Your force of 2,500 men are located in the Taizhou region of the Earth Kingdom along the Da Xijiang river. Your scouts have spotted a force of 4,000 Earth Kingdom soldiers encamped to the north in a series of hills. They appear to be unaware of your presence. Your current surroundings are plains with a river to the east. Your Objective is to drive the Earth Kingdom from the hills by whatever means necessary._

Along with the prompt came a map. I already knew where Taizhou was, but looked at it to see just where on the river I was. I looked over the rubric. It changed for everybody depending on the assignment. Maximum points would be awarded for total annihilation of the enemy. I was surprised I was given the role of the Fire Nation. Whenever I went up against another student, I was usually the Earth Kingdom. Guess the teacher lost the coin toss. If anything, that put me at a disadvantage this time around. Attacking Earth Benders fortified in the hills was suicide. I looked over what manpower I had available to me. I had 7 scout divisions, 25 battalions of soldiers all divided into 10 squadrons each. I only had 5 squads of firebenders which meant 50 firebenders. I did have 10 battalions of swordsmen, 10 of swordsmen, and 5 of archers, but I had no tanks. I drafted my first reports. I ordered one scout division to go east, 2 to go south, 2 west, and 2 north. I ordered a restock of supplies and that all men equip for battle. This would reduce morale but improve battle readiness in case of surprise attack. I wanted to take note of one thing before I made any decisions. The restock would take 30 minutes and the scouts an hour each. I left my dorm and brought the first report to the classroom. I wasn't the first there. I already saw some sealed reports on the desk. I felt worse for the teacher who would have to read through each report and write events and scout reports, and quartermaster counts and all of it, but she was somewhat of a bitch, so I didn't feel too bad.

I got my quartermaster report back first 30 minutes later after ordering my men to prepare to march. I did have no tanks, but I had 3 coal powered troop transports. _Perfect._ I ordered my men to begin assembling into these ferries. I did the calculations based on distance and size of the transports. To transport all men across would take 4 hours. I couldn't spare that. I ordered a quarter of my men to begin assembling into the boats. They would be done shortly after the first scout report came back and I could decide if I wanted to dedicate more men to the east.

I submitted the report. I checked the clock in her room before leaving. I was still on-schedule. _Good._ I walked back to the classroom and gave out common orders of organization and foraging that were just basic orders to improve morale, battle readiness, supply, etc.

At the 1-hour mark, when I turned in my 6th report, I grabbed the report with my name on it and unsealed it back in my dorm. Morale was slightly below average, but still acceptable. I couldn't expect any defection soon. Food was high as well as battle readiness and organization. I got my scout reports back. Terrain to the south was more plains. To the north, plains, until the hills, where the enemy was encamped. This time, my scouts counted their numbers at 3,000. I would prepare for the worst and prepare for 4,000. Terrain to the west was hills. Across the river which was half a mile wide, the terrain was plains, but visibility was low due to fog floating on the river. _Perfect._ A quarter of my men were already on their way across. Then, of course, as there was every hour, an event. I read it:

 _The Earth Kingdom enemy has launched a surprise attack on your forces. They dedicated approximately 500 forces to the attack according to scouts. Troop composition unknown. You may no longer give general orders as you are being attacked but may only give battle orders._

Battles functioned differently. I needed formations and a general plan. I didn't know how long I had spent reading so I had to rush with the order. This was just the first hour. I was doing fine. I sent 125 firebenders across the river, however, that wasn't great. I ordered my firebenders to move forward with my spearmen and swordsmen as well as archer following. I ordered my firebenders to burn the ground in front of them, creating a smokescreen. I order them to file in with my spearmen and order them to form a spear wall with archers in the rear. As my archers have not yet had a move, I order them to fire in an arch over the smoke. I had no idea who I was pitted up against, but he was going on the offense. Wanted to catch me off guard. It wouldn't work.

I turned the report in. When it came to battles, obviously, we couldn't get the reports meant for us right when we turned our orders in, we would have to wait until the next round. My transports were not yet across the river, but I started drafting their orders, having them move north, using the steam as cover until they were north of the enemy position on the other side of the river. I would keep them where I needed them. I couldn't write any orders right now. There was nothing I could write for these 10 minutes. So, I waited until I felt it was time.

I went to the room, but the clock told me I still had another 5 minutes to wait. Would've been much easier to have clocks in our room, but I could understand, they were expensive. When the time came, I heard just as the report was sealed and grabbed it off her desk right away as the other students started filing in. I ran straight to my room and read the battle report.

 _The Earth Kingdom forces use earth bending to block incoming arrows with some efficiency. The suffer losses of 53 (13 earthbenders and 40 soldiers). The Earth Kingdom smothers the flames, but the smoke remains. Earth Kingdom forces incite ground tremors beneath the Fire Nation formations, hindering their shield wall. The Earth Kingdom charges._

They used up their moves too soon. They're mid charge and I have firebenders in front of my formation at the ready. I write my orders, having my archers fire down on the Earth Kingdom while my firebenders torch the approaching forces. I order my forces of greater numbers to form a concave curve, surrounding their forces while remaining in shield wall formation.

I won that encounter. When I got the report 20 minutes later saying how I killed their forces with maximum fatalities, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I wasn't happy yet. I knew I could beat the student, it's what the teacher had up her sleeve that scared me. She was just luring me into a false sense of security, even I could see that. I found out how they got here so quickly. They were cavalry, but they dismounted north of my position knowing the animals would become afraid of the flames and cause chaos in their ranks. I ordered my men to slaughter half while I mounted

A quarter of my force was east of the river and marching north. I had plenty of time and was growing paranoid of what the teacher was planning so I had them back further away from the river by a good half mile. I didn't want even the luckiest scout finding them. I had the rest of my army on the west of the river marching northwest, so I wouldn't attack their camp straight from the south, but from the hills to their southwest. The second event came, mass rainfall. This was the first evidence of the teacher working against me. The river became flooded. I had abandoned the troop transports to the south but was positive they would now be beached. This would ruin the wood supply along the banks I would have used later to construct rafts to go back across the river which meant I would have to move more inland. Some of my food supply was destroyed by the rainfall as well. I was glad I slaughtered those animals.

The next 7 hours were a slog. More rainfall, storms, quakes. I had ordered my soldiers west of the lake to camp in the hills, but mud from the runoff was killing the morale of my men. On the east, wood was rotting on the trees wherever I went. I had my men in position, but they still weren't ready to attack. I had had to order my men on the east to go back for the steam powered transports and recover them. Luckily, with the flooding, I could bring them inland enough, so the Earth Kingdom wouldn't see them from their hills. Overall, the flooding had given way for a whole new plan. I knew the teacher was trying to sabotage me. That much was obvious. Whoever my opponent was, his part had ended after the first attack. Unless he was spending hours in end fortifying his position, he wasn't doing anything.

I had a new plan made possible by the flooding. Her insistence to have flooding be part of the "random" event every hour had raised the water levels by over 3 feet. My men in the east were wading in mud. At least, that's what she thought. For the last 3 hours, I had made my orders in the east vague enough to throw her off, but specific enough to meet the requirements and have me prepare for my next steps. I would move "undefined" equipment onto "undefined" vehicles. In the west, with the mud gathering in the valleys of the hills, I was able to move small squads throughout the hills, visibility decreased by the rain to the point I had them surrounding their entire camp, hiding in the mud.

It was at hour nine and minute 20, when more rain kept coming down that I tossed aside the ambiguity. I ordered my men in the mud around their camp to initiate the attack by setting fires to their watchtowers and tents. I knew this would scare their animals. From the last scout report I did on their camp, they hadn't fortified at all and all their men were inside the camp. I don't know if I was walking into a trap or facing an idiot. And if I was walking into a trap, was it the student's or the teacher's?

By the time the fighting had started in the hills, I launched a naval attack on the hills. With the flooding and over 3 feet of water above river level, there was more than enough room for my transports to come in, having my firebenders bombard their inner camp with fire.

I turned in the orders. The next 10 minutes were hell as I didn't write but waited for the report. I decided to wait right outside the classroom. I didn't see how I could lose now. Not when my opponent had done absolutely nothing. Finally, the time reached the 9-hour and 40-minute mark. I grabbed the report, ran to my room and read it. The attack was going perfectly. Their camp was beginning to be set aflame, their troops were in disarray, but they weren't retreating. They were holding their ground in the center, earth bending walls around their camp despite the fact that my soldiers were already moving in. They were stalling me. I had my objective and if he wasn't going to retreat, then I had to finish this.

I gave the last of my orders. I pushed the transports in, raining fire from above atop the Earth Kingdom soldiers, having my firebenders scale their walls and burn the soldiers within like fish in a barrel. It had to be over, right? I hesitated before I sealed that last order. I had him. I did, but did I have her? Did I have the teacher? What could she do? What could either of them do?

I guess I would find out. I walked to the classroom, final orders in hand along with the rest of the War game file, planted them on her desk, and took my seat. The final orders of all war games were read in class. These final reports were the last 10 hours in the making. We were tired, hungry, and nervous. The rest of the students filed in and watched as she wrote the final reports for each and every student.

She walked around the room, placing the final report attached to our file now packed with all of our past orders and reports, in front of each student. When I got mine, I unsealed it before I even checked it was for the right person, but I knew that it was mine just by the insane amounts of rain described.

 _Fire Nation forces close in on the Earth Kingdom army, raining fire on their desperate holdings. However, as the Fire Nation army moves inwards, Earth Kingdom mines, buried beneath the hills detonate destroying the entirety of the Fire Nation forces and fleet._ _ **DEFEAT**_ _._

 _What. The fuck?_ That last word, emboldened and capitalized as though the paper was telling me to go fuck myself. I looked up to the teacher who was passing the reports back to the other students and could see the self-satisfied grin on her face as she looked at me with the corner of her eye. Of course, she did.

"Ha!" I heard one of the students, Zanni, yell from across the room. "Suck it, Luke!"

 _Guess that wasn't the only rule she broke._ The opponent was supposed to be anonymous.

"Congratulations on your results, students. You're all dismissed. Zani, please come see me for personal commendation."

 _She just had to be a bitch about it to._ I grabbed my file and got ready to leave when I heard her say behind me "Luke. Please turn in your file to me."

I turned around from where I stood at the door and when I did, I was standing right above Zani's desk where he sat with his orders laid right in front of him as he read through them as though he was some sort of military genius. Maybe a military genius wouldn't make it so obvious. The orders in his handwriting ended after the 2nd hour. The handwriting that followed was the same handwriting that wrote the reports given to me at the end of each period.

I looked to the teacher who was now sitting at her desk with that same grin on her face.

"Why?" I asked. Everybody else got to keep their file

"It's solely for organization and continuity. It's safer here than in your dorm."

 _I bet it fucking is._

"Excuse me for asking, but would it not be worth more in my hands where I can learn from my mistakes, **ma'am**?"

The grin left her face. "File. Now."

 _Fuck it. I was done with this game._ I walked to her desk and slapped the file down onto it.

"Better luck next time, Luke" Zani called from where he sat. I never had so much of an urge to beat the living hell out of somebody and I never had such a hard time resisting. _If this was the slums, he would be dead, hanging feet first from the wall._ I allowed the image to satisfy me until I returned to my own room.

I found no sleep that night. No matter how I adjusted myself, sleep evaded me. I lay on my side, looking constantly at that door that connected to that stupid, dusty, abandoned dorm. I just got angrier the longer I looked at it.

I was back in that same dojo the next afternoon. It was Zihe all over again.

"Sweep the legs" the coach yelled from the sidelines. Zihe went down to the ground, and sure enough, swept me off my feet, bringing me to the ground where he promptly kicked me in the chest, leaving his foot there as a show of victory.

"Again!"

This time he went for the arm. Each punch I threw, he blocked, and parried. He grabbed my arms, throwing me from side to side like a ragdoll which would be infuriating enough without the laughter from the others. This went on until he pinned me to the rope, kicked my leg out from underneath me and punched me across the face, sending me to the ground, opening all too recent wounds.

"Again!"

He went for the eyes. I couldn't even see him when he grabbed me by the shoulders and butted his head against mine, sending me to the ground once more.

"Again!"

My vision wasn't even clear yet. He jumped out of reach as I tried to throw a punch, grabbed my arm, pulled me forward sending me falling down on my face and put his foot on my back, pinning me to the ground.

"Again!"

I tripped me as he passed to my side, jabbed me in the back of the neck, grabbed me and pulled me to the ground.

"Again!"

He stood right in front of me. Waiting for me to make the first move again like I had every other time. I was sick of this. I was sick of this shit where I was just a moving punching bag to be thrown around on a whim for practice. I was sick of the coach using me to find new ways to train his **actual** students. This time, he went for the first move. I didn't even see him approach through the growing blur of my vision. He punched me in the chest, sending me backwards. He punched again, but I managed to block. Not his second punch which took me in the stomach, sending me reeling back to the rope where he pinned me. He punched. He punched. And he punched. Somewhere in there, I got sick of it. All of it. Sick of the treatment. Sick of their view of me. Sick of the bullshit they called a military academy. I felt that same anger rise through my body. I felt it flow through me like some kind of unheard of energy. I saw my opening between his punches and took it. I grabbed his right arm mid punch with my left, twisted it to the side, saw his face wide open and took the shot. I felt that same anger, that same rage, that same energy flow to my arm as I brought my first up to his exposed face. I don't even remember if I made impact. I just remember falling backwards. All I remember is that and the fire and smoke.


	7. Chapter 6: Bender

**Zar'un**

"What's this?" I asked, referring to the parcel of paper placed on my desk.

"Another one of the monk's notes. Like the others, it looks like it was torn out of a larger piece, a book perhaps."

"Where did you find it?" I asked as I skimmed the writing.

"Don't listen to what they say. Watch out for the others. Hide your abilities. Shroud your past." _What did it mean? Instructions? For him? For somebody else?_

"In the library. In the military history section. Orders?"

I flipped the note to the other side where the same writing could be seen that had been on the back of every other note we'd found:

"Trust nobody."

"Burn it with the rest."

"Yes sir!" he said as he saluted me and walked off. When the door closed, I let my head fall onto my hands, elbows on the desk. I thought this would be over by now. We found those notes in bulk in the days following monk Gyani's arrest and execution. How we had an air monk in our ranks for so long without arousing suspicion still bothered me. Sure, he didn't have the shaved head or the arrows, but a damn air monk. From the way they looked in the old pictures, it would have been impossible not to notice one in a room of a thousand. After his execution, we found more, then it slowed down. We found the last one 3 months ago and then the one today. _When would this finally be behind us?_ I followed my orders to the letter. Killed him the second suspicion was raised. Made a show of it too, publicly. Guess it wasn't enough. His legacy still remained.

I heard a knock at the door that immediately put my senses on alert. I raise my head, smoothed my uniform, and straightened my back. "Send him in."

The 2 guards opened the double doors in unison and in walked Gaz-di, principal of the military academy.

"Principal." I said with a salute. The Fire Nation respected a proper education and upbringing. It was a stable initiation and introduction to the military culture of the nation. Men like Gaz-di were needed, respectful and respected. I was lucky to have one such as him running the academy. I had no doubt every student within these walls would make welcome additions to our garrison. _Assuming they're not sent to the frontlines first._

"Captain." He said with a salute as he sat down. It was a rare occurrence for him to come here. If it was him pleading for more funding, he would get the same answer as he did the last few times. Education was valued in the Fire Nation, but so was not dying. That little money this city had was needed for defense, the inner wall mostly now. Last I heard from the slums, the food crisis was getting even worse and the people were rioting. A new gang has formed known as the Vipers and have had no trouble gaining volunteers. From what I've heard, they're violent and ruthless. Soon enough, I may have to impose a curfew on this city, quarantine the slums. The tunnel was still holding up, but caravans that came through claim they could start to see sunlight shining through. That wasn't a comforting thought.

"You have news for me?"

"I do. It's regarding one of the students. There's been an incident."

"What kind of incident?"

"The kind that resulted in one of our dear coach Zandar's best prospects being sent to the infirmary with 2nd degree burns on his face neck and chest."

"Damn it! I told you that firebenders weren't to be placed in the fighting classes as nonbenders."

"That's just the thing. We didn't know he could bend."

"You mean- "

"A late bloomer. Yes."

I brought a hand to my face to rub some of the sleep from my eyes that had accumulated from a series of sleepless nights. _A late bloomer. How long has it been since one of those?_ _They're rare, but they_ _ **do**_ _happen. I knew the student he was talking about. Zihe. I never did like that little shit. I wouldn't feel sorry for him, but I will show sympathies when his parents barge in demanding reparations._

"This late bloomer of ours. Who is he?"

"Cadet Luke, sir."

I wanted to laugh when I heard that. I'm sure Gaz-di wanted to as well. He always **did** root for the underdogs. At least now I could start pushing away my regrets at letting those slum kids into this city. Maybe all those complaints and threats from the students' parents regarding housing them with criminals would be worth it now. Somehow though, I knew it wouldn't be as simple as that.

"Well then. What's the state of our bending dojo right now?"

"Disbanded, sir. As of last year, remember? When our last firebending students were sent to the front?"

"Right. Them. They keep on getting younger and younger." _They were both 14. Twins. I remembered them well. Nice kids._ "But their teacher is still around as I recall. Too old for combat?"

"Yes sir."  
"Good. Tell him he has a new student."

"Of course. And as for his standard close quarters combat class?"

"Take him out of it. If he's managed to get a hit at Zihe's face and struck it, I think we've taught him enough. Besides, I don't need him burning any more of our students."

"Yes sir."

"But **do** make sure his new teacher catches him up. I won't have an untrained child wielding fire in our academy."

"Understood sir." He saluted. And left.

I let that suppressed chuckle finally escape me. This evening had suddenly become a lot better for me. I always hated our coach. Only thing that got him his job was his last name. If I couldn't fire him for this, I could at least make his career hell, but perhaps losing Zihe was enough for him. I would think on it.

I looked back to my desk at the newfound dust from the monk's letter. _How many more would I find? I killed him, but his memories and thoughts remained. His legacy still resided in the military district here. We knew of his letters, but what more of his legacy remained. What was still here that we hadn't yet discovered?_

 **Luke**

It wasn't the first time, and I was damn sure it wouldn't be the last time I spent the night in a cell. It was morning, or at least I thought it was when I saw Danev walk over to the bar door of my cell.

"Well look at you" he said in a sing-song voice as he strolled over to where I sat in day-old clothes. "I heard you blew somebody up."

"Something like that. How is he?" Yes, I hated Zihe, but did I want to kill him? Maybe, in that moment, I did, but I didn't want him dead. I still couldn't remember what had happened. I was having trouble piecing it together. "And how'd you get here?"

"Class doesn't start for an hour. And he's alive. Face is burnt pretty bad, but he'll live. Heard his sweetheart broke up with him in search for somebody with a face. Could've waited until he was out of the infirmary, but hey, she's cute. I'm not complaining."

"Nurse Zaydi not enough for you?" he made sure to tell me plenty a time about the best parts of the injuries he received in practice. 'Each one is just a ticket to visit her." He joked with me.

"I'm keeping my options open. She's a bit preoccupied piecing our 'star-student's' face back together."

"Funny."

"You going to tell me what happened?"

"All I can say is that I punched, there was an explosion, and next thing I knew, I was on the ground, my hand hurt like hell like it was on fire, and there was smoke covering the entire room. I was hoping you could tell me more."

"I wasn't there."

"But you weren't in here. What are people saying?"

"They say you summoned a dragon that flew in through the window and lit Zihe on fire."

"Danev."

"What do you think they're saying. They're saying you firebended. Is it firebended or firebent?"

I shook my head. I couldn't have firebent. I wasn't a bender. I knew that since Reek caught me trying to bend in the middle of the street, pointed at me, and laughed, saying I could stop because all I was doing was making an ass of myself.

I was 6. I had tried every element I could think of. I tried bending a rock from the ground and throwing it at Reek. I tried bending the water from a fountain and throwing it at him. I tried to push him away from me with a gust of air and I tried to light him on fire. I wasn't a bender.

"What?" Danev asked. "You don't believe it?"

"You think I don't want to? Believe me, I would want nothing more than to be a bender. To control fire with my mind. Trust me, I would love to, but turns out, I tried a long time ago. I can't bend."

"You mean that spectacle on the street?"

"You heard about that?" I asked, heat rising to my face.

"I think everyone in the slums did. There's not much secrecy going on there."

"What can I say?" I asked, laughing it off. "I wanted to be a bender. I still do."

"Quite the reluctant hero you are."

I chuckled. "Fuck the reluctance. Fuck the hero. Given a choice, I would gladly be a bender, but just so happens, I'm not."

"Explain the explosion then."

"Trick of the light, I don't know. It would make more sense."

"Trick of the light. Of course, I've heard about those."

I heard the footsteps and saw the approaching figure before Danev did. I rushed to my feet and when I saw the uniform of the soldier in front of me, I saluted.

Danev, who clearly didn't notice the man standing right behind him laughed. "About time you started saluting me. I always told Riu that the Hornets would be better if we acknowledged ran- "

He saw the shadow on the ground and turned around. Even by looking at the back of his head, I could see the heat rising to his face. His salute was a strained one, but it was there. I could see the newfound sweat running down his neck.

He looked at where I stood in my cell. "At ease."

I broke the salute.

"You're the firebender?"

"I. I guess so. Sir!"

"Then come with me. Training starts now."


	8. Chapter 7: Fire

**Luke**

"I must say, kid" spoke the nameless instructor who stood in the corner, watching me. "You're not doing very well of impressing me."

 _Yes. Because I'm the one who demanded lessons, claiming I was a Fire Bender._ Still, I sucked it up, and went back at humiliating myself. I'm sure I was making quite the display for him. Throwing my fists at the air as though I were fighting some invisible opponent. I was losing. Every punch I threw, I felt more and more like an idiot. I even threw some half-assed kicks in there for good measure. Surprisingly, they didn't have much of an effect.

I looked over to where he stood in the corner, just there, watching. He wasn't old, but he wasn't young either. Somewhere in his mid to late 50s I'd wager. His beard and hair were graying. You could tell he didn't care too much to shave every morning. Same went for his hair. It was tied in an effortless bun at the back. Despite the armor he wore, you could see the scars across his body. Those on his face were clear enough. The one that caught my attention was his burn.

"Staring at me won't get you anywhere, recruit. Get back to it!"

 _To what? Making an ass of myself._ I did as I was told. I couldn't tell who wanted me to firebended more. Him or me. I was still doubtful of it. I wanted to tell him as much when he came to my cell, but I had a free ticket out of there and I wasn't about to give it up. Now, though, I wasn't sure if it was worth it. I was waiting to see who broke first. I was surprised when it wasn't me.

"Oh, come on!" he yelled, stepping out of his corner towards me. "They interrupted my day for this?! Some dumb kid who thinks he's a firebender?!"

Then one thing led to another.

"I'm sorry, but I never said I was shit! You're the one who brought me here!"

"Oh, but I bet you just wish you had a reason to be here. I bet you came thinking you were something special. Something more than what you thought. Happy now? Satisfied yet? You've managed to not only waste your day, but mine too."

"Damn it. Let me try. I did it once, didn't I?" _Didn't I?_

"I don't know what kind of shit you pulled in that dojo. What was it? Firecracker up your sleeve? No. Not powerful enough. Not near powerful enough to almost burn that kid's face off. Probably would have been better for anyone had you taken the beating. A competent student would be alive, and I wouldn't have to be wasting my time here."

 _Fuck him and fuck off! Let me try, alright?_ I punched more at the air. I tried charging up my energy, whatever the hell that meant and focusing it. Didn't do shit.

"Bomb in your hand? No, would've blown your arm clean off yet here you stand, all in one piece. Zihe, he was useful. Had the making of a good soldier in him. I'm not surprised coach loved him. He had a future. You. You were a glorified punching bag for his students to practice on."

I turned towards him and somehow evaded the thought to aim my next punch towards him. Wouldn't do any good save piss him right off. I shook the thought out of my head and turned back to the empty air of the decrepit firebending dojo in front of me.

"You know what happens to people in the Fire Nation who lie about being benders? We flog them. Publicly. They see it fit to waste our resources on them even though they're absolutely nothing. Oh, but that's just what you're doing right now, isn't it? Wasting resources, time worst of all."

I couldn't help it this time. He was walking even closer and I couldn't not aim the next one at him. I could've sworn I felt a heat rise in me. I even got my hopes up for a split second there, but odds were, I was overheating or was just plain embarrassed. _Damn it! You did it before!_

"Oh. Getting a little angry, are you?" He smiled and continued walking closer to the point where he was nearly whispering into my ears. "Maybe I should just put you down right now. It would save us the time and resources of a public flogging, though I'm sure tons of people in the city would love to see a turncoat slum rat get his shit handed to him. Wouldn't they? All those kids in the slums you left behind. I read up on you. You're not a firebender. You're a traitor to your people. You led them into a suicidal march and got every last one of them killed for your safe passage. Well congratulations. Here you are! I have to hand it to you. I always hated those damn gangs in the slums. I wish I could've seen their faces when you betrayed every last one of them and got them all killed so you could be here."

That was when I couldn't take it anymore. I knew right where he was standing beside me and took my shot. Maybe I just planned to punch him across the face or maybe I hoped for more, I couldn't remember, but lucky for him, he was a foot taller than Zihe so my fist wouldn't meet his face, but nonetheless, the fire that I created between him and me would send him back onto his ass, falling from where he had stood just seconds before.

The recoil from the blast had sent me back as well, but I stood there. First still up. This time, I was awake to see what I had done and there was no getting it wrong. I looked down to where the instructor sat on the mat, the look in his eyes. I wanted to smile, to laugh, to cheer. I think I even might of, but when I looked back into the instructor's eyes, it wasn't shock I saw. It was satisfaction. _The hell?_

"Well then" he said, standing up as he dusted himself off, wiping the newfound ash off his armored chest plate. "I'd call that progress."

"Well then?" I asked, "And that's supposed to mean?"

"That maybe you and everyone else inside this Citadel isn't full of shit. Your real training begins now. Like it or not, you're a firebender now. I guess now's when I teach you what that means."

 **Zar'un**

"Sorry, but we're simply not equipped to supply the 15th armored division. Food is low as it is and It's not the most welcoming city." I said as I addressed the admiral sitting right in front of me. His name was Zen-Li, and he had every intention of using Citadel as the next front in the Siege of Ba-Sing-Se.

"Food is not an issue. They're provisions have been accommodated for and this is not the entirety of the 15th we are talking about. The majority has already been deployed to Ba-Sing-Se. However, with the constant innovations of our fatherland, we have a fresh supply of resources and manpower that needs transportation. Summer is long past, and the Great Divide is now dry and will not be used to ferry troops. We can send them across the Eastern Sea, but they will require shelter on the journey to Ba-Sing-Se."

"Is shelter all you're seeking?" I knew his type. He wasn't fierce, and he wasn't strong. I doubted he was even a bender. He got his job through his family name most likely, which made him more powerful than all the former put together.

He chuckled into his robed arm. He wasn't even armored. I was surprised he didn't just send a hawk. He outranked me and could've clearly made this an order if it was just shelter he sought. There was more it and I believed I knew what it was. "I will be straight with you." He told me. "I hear your school is performing rather well of late. You have bright young students in training and I believe, in 3 months' time, they will be more than ready to apply their strengths to the field of war."

"You're kidding, right? Half of them are no older than 14. These are children we are talking about.

"You need not worry. I will take none younger than twelve, but you must understand. This is the 15th armored. The younger ones will be safe acting as pilots and gunners while the older ones can act as infantry. They will be safe, I assure you. This war is nearing its end and they can all run back to their families once the Earth kingdom capital falls, but we cannot end this war unless we use all available resources, including our nation's brightest and strongest. So, Captain. Will you do your part?"

There wasn't an objection here and there was no arguing. He had his demands met when he was born with his name. I was just here to speak his confirmation. "Citadel. And its people. Are yours to command."

"Excellent. I will make for the homeland. The fleet should be here in 3 months' time. I suggest you begin to conclude these soldiers' training. They'll need it.

 **Luke**

It was past midnight. I finally had that damn sparring armor off of me and the bruises were more than worth being able to breathe again. In that entire day, I had only been able to shoot off another 3 blasts. Yes, I counted. And only when he got me pissed off enough or threw something my way requiring me to hit it out of the sky before it struck me. It was more instinctual than it was on demand, but you know what? Right now, it didn't matter. Yesterday, at this time, I was in a cell for what I had done less than two days ago, when I hadn't even known what I was. For all intents and purposes, I was happy.

I still didn't have his name, but what he told me was still going through my head. _Fire is alive. It is wild, untamed. That is your job, to tame it. To control it. Nothing more. Your control of this life will be the determinant between life and death. Without control, you endanger yourself and those around you, but with this power, wielded properly, you become all that stands between life and death._ The words had given me chills then, and they still did now.

"All that stands between life and death, huh?" I chuckled to myself, as I lay there in bed, unable to move from the bruises that lined my body.

I tried closing my eyes to let sleep take me, but sleep wouldn't take me. I thought being bruised up and exhausted was supposed to help with sleep. Guess not.

I turned my head over on its side, looking straight at the steel wall, then the other way.

The door that led to the dorm next to mine was open. I hadn't opened it. It hadn't been clean as from here, I could still see the cobwebs that lined the room as well as some of the larger bugs that scurried the floor. _It had just opened._

The bruises weren't a concern anymore. I shifted my weight and moved my feet off the bed and onto the steel floor. Barefoot, I stood up. The light in my room was off, but my eyes were adjusted. The only lighting was from the moon coming through my window and the window of the mirrored room in front of me.

I stepped through the shared bathroom that connected the rooms. At this point, I didn't even feel as though I were the one walking. I felt as though I were being carried. _To what?_ I felt the thick layer of dust against the soles of my feet and could hear the vermin scurrying away beneath the furniture of the decrepit room.

 _Why am I here? It's abandoned. I'm alone here. So why am I standing here? What of importance is here?_

"You are."

I felt the hairs on my skin rise but didn't even feel my own body turn around and send that pitiful blast of fire that burst against the wall. First one of the day."Who said that?!" I asked.

"I did." It was a deep voice. Calm. Slow.

"Where are you?"

"All around you. I always am. You can just hear me now."

"What are you? Where am I?"

"So many questions. So little answers. Who I am is unimportant. Where you are is unimportant. You are standing in a dark moonlit room that has been abandoned for almost a year, left a ruin."

 _What the hell is happening "_ Is this a dream? Or is this real?"

"Who is to say they cannot be both?"

I looked around. Searching for where the voice came from. It was all around this room, whatever it was. I tried stepping out into the bathroom, but his voice only softened. It didn't leave like it was confined to the room, it just weakened.

"It doesn't work like that."

"Who are you to say it doesn't? Just yesterday you learned you could control an element with your mind. Is this so much of a stretch?"

"Maybe. What do you want?"

"'What do I want'? Is that the question you really want to be asking? If there is anything I want, it is for you to listen to me. I can feel something about you even if you don't. There is more to you than you believe if only you will listen."

"I'm listening, but why should I believe anything you say?"

"You require proof."

"Damn right, I do."

"Then hear me now. An old ally has been frozen in time. His return will mark the day the world around you begins to metamorphose in front of your eyes."

"Ah. Riddles. Lovely."

"I do not speak riddles. I speak the future."

 _Yeah. I've had enough of this._ "Sorry, but no. Excuse me for having doubts, but I've had a stressful day yesterday and I hear those kinds of dreams can get rather insane, so I'm sorry that I'm wasting energy coming up with all of this in my head."

"I see. Disappointing. Though you will be back."

"I wouldn't count on it." I said as I left the room.

I woke to the sound of the shutting of a steel door. I immediately sprang up from my bed in time to see the lock on the door turning. I kicked the covers off of me, my body soaked in a cold sweat and rushed to the door, turning the handle. It wouldn't budge. I kicked it, I banged on it, but it was closed.

Going about the rest of my day was no easy task. Going back to sleep in the first place was an impossible mission. I was no longer in the military strategy course which was somewhat disappointing, but I was out of Zandar's dojo which was a relief at least.

I sat with Danev during lunch between my firebending sessions. He taught me military strategy and history now. Along with firebending and nonbending combat. Things, were indeed, changing rather quickly. Too quickly for my taste. "You look like hell." He commented across the table from me.

"Thanks."

"Rough night?"

"I guess."

That was when Nurse Zaydi would break protocol by rushing into a student barracks in the middle of the day, coming straight for our table. I wasn't sure how to take the news then and never thought I would know. "Aden's awake."


	9. Chapter 8: Whispers

**Luke**

"Stop!" spoke the nameless instructor from where he stood in the room. I did as I was bid and stopped, lowering my arm, not daring to wipe the sweat from my brow. I couldn't decide which feeling was more irritating, the burn in my hand or the warm sweat trickling down my face. Both called for immediate attention. One required wiping it away, the other, was an urge of sorts. One that called for further action. I wanted to bend. But I supposed that would require getting it right first.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled as he closed the distance between us. "You have an enemy directly in front of you. One intent on ending your life in the name of his nation. What do you do? Do you cover your face for fear of injury?"

I knew a prompt when I got one. That was one thing I had mastered in the last few days. "No, sir"

"Do you give him a nice love tap and the chest and hope he walks away?!"

"No, sir"

"Louder!"

"No, sir!"

"Damn right, you don't! You strike down your enemy, do you hear me! You do not hold back! When you are presented with a threat, you do not evade, you do not cower, you meet that threat and end it!"

The way he was talking. Meeting a threat head on. I understood that philosophy. That way of fighting. It belonged to the Earth Nation, and earthbender's main attributes, strength, fortitude, vigor, but I knew better than to ask a veteran of war why he emulated the techniques of his enemy, the enemy no doubt responsible for the scars he bore. For now, the normal answer would do. "Yes, sir."

"You're distracted. You're improving, yes. Finally managed to raise the room's temperature, but you're sloppy. We will fix that. What is it that's holding you back, distracting you?"

 _Well, for one, I have some strange entity talking to me in my sleep. I'm frankly terrified that it's trying to kill me. On the other hand, one of my old gang members just woke up from a coma your guys put him in and I nor Danev have been able to visit him. Now one of us has to tell him his best friend, along with his entire gang has been massacred and we're working for the people more or less responsible._

"Just stressed, sir."

"Then deal with it. We're done for today. Find some way to fix your issues, but you're coming back here tomorrow, 6am sharp. Understood?"

"Understood, sir." I said with a salute before walking into the steel hallways that connected the Citadel school, the most impressive structure of the entire military district. It was a school on a few floors, a barracks on a few others, and the offices of the chief personnel on the top few. Nice place they had here. I doubted Aden would see it that way. Everybody save me and Danev were dead. Danev, more or less, was safe, but me, when Aden was captured by the Fire Nation, I was still rather new. Hadn't done anything to prove myself yet. When he hears just how the Hornets were put into a position where they were all slaughtered, well, I didn't have the best of hopes for myself.

Danev was waiting at the door to the hospital ward. It took a lot of talking to manage to get ourselves a meeting with Aden. Damnit, he didn't even know we were here. He's been awake for 3 days, probably thinking he was a captive of some sorts, which, he was, but, fuck it, whatever he was thinking, he was wrong, and we were going to have to be the ones to tell him so.

It was Zaydi who poked out her head to let us know we could come in.

"How is he?" Danev asked.

"Stable. For now. He fought for the first few hours. Took some sedating and some physical restraint, but he's fine. More or less."

"More or less?" asked Danev.

"He's in no worse condition than when those soldiers first brought him here."

"Wow. That's sure saying a lot. I saw him when I was brought in with him. Your soldiers tore him to shreds."

"'Our' soldiers. Those Hornets did a number on our men too, killed more than enough to even the score."

"He won't see it that way."

"I know. Which is why you need to calm him down. Stop him from doing anything rash. Anything that would get himself or others hurt. Or worse."

"Is this your concern, or your superiors'?"

"Mine. You should go in now"

I was following the conversation. Rather well, I might add. This was my profession for a good few years in the slums. Reading conversations like this, pulling what useful things I could from them, exaggerating them, and selling them. I would have to be an idiot to miss the tension between the nurse and my friend. I looked between the two of them, back to back. Despite the yelling, there was something there.

Danev lowered his head. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"It's nothing. Go on in."

We entered the ward. The ward wasn't the infirmary. For the most part, it was empty. It was no surprise really. Fighting was a ways away in Ba-Sing-Se. Nothing of note here. Well, one thing of not. I didn't need to see his face to know who it was lying next to where Aden sat. It was that some body that had beat the shit out of me time after time. Zihe wasn't looking too good, face covered in bandages the way they were. Would've felt sorry if he wasn't the pathetic cunt that he was. He's a bully his entire life, nut when something goes wrong, say, a charred face for example, it's all just whining, crying, and screaming as he's carried out on a stretcher. _Wow. The more I think about it in my head, I sound like a complete prick. Meh. Screw it._

I was done paying attention to that pathetic sack of garbage when Aden finally noticed us. His vision drifted to us, pulled away, then looked back just as quickly. That double take confirmed what he had thought he had just seen.

"No fucking way."

He kicked the hospital sheets off his bed and stumbled over to where he sat, nearly tripping and falling to the floor. We had to catch him by his arms to stop his face from meeting the steel floor.

"Careful there." Danev said from his side of Aden, holding him by his left arm.

"Shit, man. I haven't taken a step in, what, 6 months?"

"More or less. You've missed a lot."

 _Shit. Don't remind me._ We escorted him back to his hospital bed, setting him down nicely. He sat up, leaning his back against the wall behind his bed. "What are you doing here? Fire Nation finally catch up to you guys?"

"Yep. Guess we got unlucky."

I had never seen Aden smile so intently. Even in a Fire Nation stronghold, surrounded by those he considered to be enemies, our presence alone lifted him above all that. And now we would have to ruin that.

"Holy hell. You cannot imagine how happy I am to see you guys. You too, Luke. Great to see you both. I thought I was alone here. Guess I'm just glad some of you Hornets were as unlucky as me."

 _We were the lucky ones._

"What went wrong that night?" Aden asked. "We did what we were supposed to do, but, holy hit, there were so many. You sent us to distract the soldiers while you and Goni got the supplies. Meeko and I, we-. Meeko. Where's Meeko?" he asked, shifting his wait in sporadic motions, moving his legs off the bed so he could better face us."

"Aden." Danev started. "It wasn't your fault. We know you fought to the last breath. You and he did what you coul-"

"Danev. Don't bullshit me."

"He's dead, Aden."

All the joy that had been in his eyes from realizing he wasn't alone in this new world was suddenly gone. Disintegrated before his very eyes. Like the snap of a finger. "What?"

"He's dead, Aden. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry. You're sorry? It was you who led us on that damned suicide mission!" he yelled as he stood up from his hospital bed. "Saying sorry doesn't cut it. Oh, but you and Goni got out fine didn't you. Tell me, did Goni survive that?"

Danev took a deep breath before he spoke his answer. "Yes."

"Yeah. No shit. Because you two got the task of loading supplies while Meeko and I held off a damn army. What the fuck did you expect?!"

"There wasn't a choice. We needed the food, you knew that. We were starving. We were sick. We were dying. We needed that food."

 _Great. That should help when we tell Aden that 'hey. It didn't do any good anyway because guess what? They're all dead._

"So that gives you the right to let us get ourselves killed?!"

"Aden, I'm sorry. Okay? I didn't mean for any more of us to die. I was trying to save the Hornets.

 _Danev, no._

"We knew what we were in for. Nobody got out unscathed. How do you think I got here?"

"You got caught there?"

"I did." He replied. "Paid the price for it too." He lifted his shirt to show the scars on his chest, then the ones on his arms and legs. Only half of those he received on that ill-fated raid. The rest he earned on the massacre we had yet to break to Aden. And it was going so well, so far.

"Good. I hope they bled you"

"They did, Aden. I paid the price. I am sorry. Had I known it would turn out this way, I never would have allowed that raid to go down."

That was a lie. I knew it, Danev knew it, and hell, I think Aden knew it. Nonetheless, it worked. Danev sat back down on his hospital bed.

Aden sighed. "No. We did what we had to. The Hornets needed us." He chuckled and smiled. "Meeko always did say he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. I remember all those explosions. We gave them hell, Danev. We did."

"I know you did. We could hear you from miles away."

He laughed again. "Meeko got his wish. Went out the way he always wanted to. I'm glad he got his wish. Did they bury him at least, or was there nothing to bury?"

"Uh-"

"Don't answer. I should have expected that." He sighed. "Damnit." He murmured under his breath. "We're square, Danev. I don't blame you. I blame them." He sighed again. "Where's the rest of our guys? We still at the hive?"

 _Damn it._ Danev had gotten his share of the blame. He wasn't taking this one.

"Aden, I'm s-"

"-Sure we're still at the Hive. We got the supplies we needed. Food, medicine, supplies, weapons too. Goni slipped away. We should still be well stocked from what we bled for out there."

 _Damnit, Danev._ I knew the look I wanted to give Danev, but he had made up his mind. He had chosen a path for us and I was going to follow it despite the hell it was going to lead us to down the road.

"Well then. Shouldn't we be on our way out of here? He asked standing back up.

Danev put a hand against his chest. "No." he said a bit too urgently. He caught himself, however. "There's no rush. In truth," he said, lowering his voice. "I was thinking we make our time here count. The Fire Nation thinks they're going to turn us to their side. They've put us in their ranks and they mean to do the same to do. Follow along for now. Be a good soldier, follow orders, stay discreet. Don't do anything to give yourself away. I'm keeping an eye out for a chance to explain. Gather what information you can. Troop movements, orders, anything, but don't get caught. When the time's right, I'll tell you and we'll be on our way out of here. We sell the information to the Earth Kingdom, gather the Hornets, and leave Citadel for good. Okay?"

"Okay. I'm trusting you."

We left when Aden had decided to sleep once more after being visited by Zaydi who told him he would be out in a week.

I turned to Danev right when he shut the door to the hospital ward behind him. "What the fuck was that?!"

"You saw how he reacted when I told him on of our own had died. And he had just calmed down. Did you expect me to go right into how not only was Meeko dead, but the entirety of the fucking Hornets?!"

"So you give him false hope instead?! And what was that, sending him on a fucking scavenger hunt. Look for intelligence? Are you out of your fucking mind. In here?!"

"It was the only way I could think of to make sure he bought it."

"Great. And now we have a ticking time bomb. When he finds out the Hornets are dead, and have been for 3 months, do you think he'll be dumb enough to **not** connect the dots. You have him searching for intelligence. Who's to say the next intelligence he finds **isn't** about two new slum kids brought in for training following a massacre on the grain road?! Well?"

"I didn't think about that, okay! I did the only think I could think of. I'm sorry, alright?!"

"Damnit, Danev. You know this is going to blow up in our faces, right. Now, I'm waiting to see what happens first: he gets caught poking around and gets executed, he gets caught poking around, rats us out, then we all get executed, he finds out we lied, then he executes us, there's so many fucking things that can happen, and none of them good."

Danev sighed. "Look. We'll work this out, okay? Right now, we have more things to worry about. How are your lessons?"

I was angry. And that helped. I produced a flame about the size of the palm of my hand and held it slightly levitated above my right hand. I then turned around and shot it at the far end of the hallway. It travelled quick and struck the end of the hallway before anyone could object.

When I turned back around to face Danev, his eyes were wide, and he nodded his head in some form of awe-struck approval. "Impressive."

I knew he was trying to humor me, make me forget about the fact there was a ticking bomb in the hospital ward we had just left. I had no time for this. "Thanks." I said. "I'm going to bed."

"Goodnight." He said in one last effort to reverse the dumb shit he had just done in that hospital room.

I didn't hear the same whispers in my ears as I tried to sleep tonight, but I heard the whispers. For the last few nights, since that one night, they had been the whispers of that same voice. Low, deep, dark. They were calls I pieced together. The door to the abandoned room had opened again, but I was in no rush to get in there.

Tonight however, the voice was different. It had begun the same. That same dark voice, keeping me from sleeping. The voice finally left, and I felt myself finally drift into asleep until I heard a different voice this time, a woman's voice saying "rise."

My eyes opened. My room was empty, but the door to the other room was wide open, a white light shining from within. I could feel my heart pumping quicker, feel a knot tightening in my stomach. I was not up for this.

"Get up." That same voice called. The female one. Angelic, beautiful, but fierce, determined. I knew better than to argue. I rose.

I followed the light.

I stood in the abandoned room, searching for a source of the light. There were no lights in the room, no candles lit, no torches lining the wall. There was, however, the stone walls.

 _Stone?_

Between the cracks in the, stone, walls, white light shone through, illuminating the entirety of the room. It was blinding. I tried to back up and turn my gaze away to face the door back to my room, but there was no doorway there. There were no doors at all. Just the stone walls, with the blinding light shining through the cracks. Then I heard that voice one last time.

"No matter what he offers, no matter what he promises, do not listen to him, do not fall for his lies. Resist the temptation he offers."

Before I could let any words escape from my already opened mouth, I was standing back in that steel plate room with a door leading wide back to mine. This time, I walked out on my own. The second I took the last step back into the shared bathroom, the door behind me shut and locked. I knew better than to ask any questions. For now, the whispering was gone, and I needed the sleep. The sleep I had missed for the last four days.


	10. Chapter 9: Image

**Luke**

It was hard finding time to come to the school library yesterday. Now that I was a firebender, training took up the better part of my day. Training would go from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening. Now, it was already dark by then so that cut out any other recreation, not that I would partake as I would have been covered in sweat by then from the exercise and the fire. Especially the fire. Maybe the fact it was starting to feel hotter was a good sign. Show of progress of some sort, I don't know, but point was, I was here now, and I had no idea what I was looking for.

I couldn't outright go to a teacher or doctor and say I was hearing weird voices in my head, no. That was a good way to sign myself up for vivisection or institutionalization. I had to do this on my own. Maybe I could have asked Zaydi. I had the feeling she would keep it between us, but I couldn't know for sure. It was safer this way.

I didn't bother asking the librarian anything. I doubted he knew what I was looking for and he seemed rather comfortable where he was sleeping at the front desk. I let myself in and decided first to check anything medical related. The section wasn't too updated as I imagined it might have been in a military academy that gave two shits about its medical program. The only used books were in the infirmary, but I doubt they had anything for "voices in the noggin."

I checked a few of the issues, looking at what my symptoms could be of, but there were no matches between any of the symptoms I had. I knew it wasn't fever as aside from the voices and "hallucination," I guess you could call them, I felt fine. I decided to stick around the medicine section, looking for whatever I could. I found some chapters in a few books here and there related to hallucinations and the like, but the pages that came after were ripped out. It wasn't the best of signs on how the rest of the evening would go for me.

I knelt down, getting ready to check the books on the lowest shelf when everything around me went silent. I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the lack of noise created when a book from above me that I must have poorly replaced, fell onto the ground.

For some reason, I looked around me as though I were expecting to find some physical source of the lack of noise. When I saw nothing, I decided to test this newfound anomaly and snapped my fingers in front of my face to make sure my fingers were moving. They made no noise. Not the first time, not the second, not the third, or any of the times I tried after.

Then there was finally noise, but not the kind of noise I was expecting to return at any moment. It was a soft voice, that of a man saying, "You won't find what you're looking for here." The voice was enough to send me tumbling backwards into the shelf behind me, knocking even more books onto the ground, this time with noise attributed to them.

This was the first-time voices had called to me during the day. Before, it had always been during the night, in that room. "You're not supposed to be talking to me." I dared say. To think I just started believing I knew what was going on.

"There is a lot you don't know."

"So, you can read my thoughts now?"

"No. Look for anything that talks of the world beyond this one."

With that, the voice was gone. So far, I was liking this voice a lot more than the others. This one was actually direct, told me something rather than beating around the bushes. _And thank the spirits for that. Wait. The spirits._

I got off from where I had fallen on the ground and pushed myself up to my feet, moving around to find any sort of religious section. I looked around the entire library thrice over until I realized there wasn't one here.

Instead, there were empty shelves against the wall, dust lining them as though they'd been empty for years. But who would keep shelves intentionally empty for years? No. What I'm looking for once was here, but now it isn't. So where is it?

"There's nothing here." I whispered to myself, as though I were hoping for some off worldly response to guide me.

"There is."

Somehow, it scared the hell out of me once again despite the fact I was practically asking for it. "Where?" This time I got no answer.

I looked on each of the shelves, looking for something as small as a piece of paper, but found nothing. That's when I tried looking on the lowest shelf and saw empty space between the shelf and where the floor should have been. I looked to where the shelf should have been bolted down. The screws were missing. I tried recalling which floor I was on before deciding to try to jump through it and realized I was on the 2nd. Below this floor, well, there wasn't a room there. I remembered the layout. If anything, there would be an arrow of pipes and steam generators. _What would I fine_ _ **there**_ _?_

I looked around me, half making sure I wasn't being watched and half looking for somebody who would talk me out of the dumb shit I was about to do. There was nobody there to do either. I pried my fingers between this shelf and the next, pushing it away from the empty space in the floor until there was enough room for me to slip through. I kept my hands clutching the shelves as I made my way down, ready to close it behind me, leaving enough space for me to get leverage to push it back away so I could get out again, but instead, I was forced to let go as It closed just as I made my way into the pitch-black space below.

"Really?!" I practically yelled into the black space in front of me. I was waiting for something to come on to light my way, but nothing came. _So, it finally comes in handy,_ I told myself as I created a small flame in my hand, providing enough light to illuminate the 10-foot area around me. _Pretty good considering how new I am to this,_ I told myself.

The light finally revealed where I was. As I expected, plumbing pipes, steam pipes, some electric lines here and there, that sort of thing. Luckily, I had landed on a small catwalk that allowed for engineers and plumbers and electricians to move about the area with ease. I would have to watch out for those same people.

As I moved through the pipes and electrical lines and the like, I felt like my head had suddenly cleared up. _What the hell am I doing here?_ I realized that I had been on some sort of auto-pilot this whole time, not really thinking about what I was doing, but there was no going back. My exit had closed behind me. _Fuck it,_ I thought to myself as I decided to continue on ahead of me.

In time, I reached where the corridor ended judging by the steel door ahead of me. _Well._ I thought to myself. _This has been a waste of time._ I switched the flame to my left hand as I used my right to open the door and just as the door opened, a small slip of paper waiting at the top of the door fell right onto the floor in front of me.

I looked out the door into the empty corridor. I was clear. I grabbed the small slip of paper off the ground and read it:

 _Trust Raava._

 _Watch out for Vaatu._

I wasn't waiting for them to contact me this time around. I sat on the steel bed frame in that burned out abandoned room. It was finally night. I went from wall to wall, looking for whatever made this room special. I was done waiting for them to choose when the time was right. I wanted to think I was having some effect, pacing back in forth in this apparently "sacred" room.

I looked up to the ceiling and outstretched my arms as though questioning the gods. In a way, I was. "So?!" I asked. "Are we doing this?"

There was no answer. _Son of a bitch._ I went to the far wall, banging on the walls, ruining the sleep of whoever may have sleeping in the room next door to the left.

"Hello!?" I called out as I banged on that steep plating wall. "I know I'm not insane. You've been eager enough to chat me up this last week, but what? Now that I want to talk, you're suddenly shy?!"

There was still no answer. "Fuck this." I murmured to myself. "This better get your attention."

I created a small flame in my hand, providing some light in the room at first. I focused every inch of my being on it, using my free left hand to nurture the flame as best as I could. I remember what I had been learning in my lessons with the same instructor who still refused to provide a name.

The flame grew. And grew. And grew to the point that it was then larger than my palm. Then my hand. Then a few sizes smaller than my head. The temperature in the room was rising significantly and I could feel the sweat begin to trickle down my face. _Good._ I turned to the wall that had appeared so important last time I was contacted in the middle of the night. The wall that had become stone, with the light shining through it.

This was the hard part. I focused on the flame in my right hand that had grown to a significant size. I focused on the wall in front of me. I took a step back until my back was against the wall. Drawing the energy from the flame, I created a continuous stream of fire towards the wall. It began small, but I focused more on it, allowing more flames to leave the ball I had created. As the flames left, I focused energy on restoring some of that fire that was being lost to the steel wall. It worked. The stream of fire grew as did the area of effect.

The sparks were flying further, some even reaching me. I didn't slow down. This had to work. If it didn't, I would have made an ass of myself in front of the spirits who were apparently constantly watching. I recognized those names the moment I saw them. I think everybody knew those names. The light and dark. Never before seeing those names would I have put 2 and 2 together and assumed I was talking with the 2 most important spirits in the world. Hell, never would I have guessed I was talking with spirits at all.

The flames were growing, more than I had expected. To the point that it was surprising even me. I had been practicing, yes, but not this. This was more than I was used to handling, but the stream of fire kept growing as though without my contribution, but I refused to stop. I had to keep this up. And in time, it did.

That recognizable white light appeared in the room, but this time, there was a definite source. I ended the stream of fire and turned towards the light. There was a shape in the room. A shape of light, but it was a blur, but nonetheless, this time around, there was an actual _something_ for me to talk to.

"So, this is what you look like, Raava? I always imagined something a bit more, I don't know, romantic."

I don't know what made me think joking with the spirits was a good idea, but I chose my path, and I had no regrets, though she apparently did for being the one to contact me in the first place.

"You've spoken to Wan, haven't you?"

 _Who the hell is Wan?_

"I asked you a question."

She went back to my original question. "This isn't my true form. As time goes by, you can see more and more of me."

"And why's that?"

"Because the Winter Solstice approaches." She said, apparently annoyed.

I sighed, pissed at myself for having forgotten. I put my hand to my forehead, "And the gap between the spirit world and physical world narrows. Common knowledge."

"So common that you've entirely forgotten." She spat in response, clearly upset.

"I'm sorry, but why exactly are you pissed at me?"

"I am not angry with you, merely disappointed." She spoke as her figure moved across the room.

"And when exactly did you develop standards for what you were expecting from me?"

"That is none of your concern at the moment."

"I disagree. I think it's very much my concern."

"No. It is not!"

I backed down. I wasn't yet willing to die but getting killed by a spirit would definitely be an interesting experience."

I needed to get information here. I needed to get my questions answered and I couldn't do that if she was pissed. "I'm sorry for pushing." I said. "I'm just curious. I'm not exactly used to this sort of thing. Everything has been very strange and confusing lately."

"The solstices will have this effect, especially during that of winter. Us spirits are not known to your world and the effect we have on the physical world can understandably be frightening to your kind.

 _My kind._ That's rich. "So, the bending?"

"The bending, your friend leaving his coma, your contact with us, that among much else, some of which is yet to come."

"Like what?"

"I cannot…answer that at this time."

"Then can you at least tell me why you've contacted me?"

"Your time in this city is limited, quickly running out and you yet to complete your objective here."

"What objective?"

"There. There was- "

Her image began flickering, fading into the dark.

"Something wrong?"

"I must go. Quickly."

And before I could ask why, she was gone. The night went silent once more. So then this wasn't the end of it. Well shit.


	11. Chapter 10: The Winter Solstice

**Luke**

"Again!" he yelled from where he stood at my shoulder, watching over me."

His voice went along with the motions he demanded I make.

"Punch, punch, punch, kick!" I unison with his voice, I attacked the armored straw dummy he had waiting in front of me. The goal would be to burn it, but the armor pretty much covered the entire damn thing save a few spots under the shoulder, by the neck, and the face. I punched 3 times in a row, watching as the flame didn't so much emit from my body, but formed directly in front of where my fist struck, generating in thin air. If you were to watch in slow-motion, you would see the first spark formed become a ball of fire right before it was sent off towards the target.

I dreaded what came next. Punching was one thing, you knew what you were aiming for and you could see your arm right in front of your target. You had to **try** to miss to miss. The fire bursts struck, but the 3 of them broke on the armor. Only a few sparks managed to catch the straw, but none of them managed to set the straw man aflame. Then came the kick. I was able to generate something of a flame but doing so required putting all of your built-up energy into your foot. Than meant focusing on the energy, or chi as some called it, and forcing it through your leg to your foot where you generated the flame and send it off to your target.

I had gotten a grasp on sending the energy at least mid-way through my leg. You could more or less feel where it was as you would feel something akin to adrenaline flowing through you. It was past my knee that I would break. I either wasn't keeping my leg up long enough or not sending the chi to my foot quickly enough. There was always something wrong. This time, it was the former. My leg fell to the ground and right then, the fire got to foot, creating a burst of heat between the floor and my foot, sending me falling backwards, landing on my ass, humiliated.

"Pathetic." He said.

"I know." I said as I attempted to get back on my foot.

"I would be lying if I said you weren't improving, but you aren't given so much of a choice considering you've insisted on being with me every hour of the day." _It wasn't my choice._ I was too dangerous to be around the other students apparently, so I was given to him, whatever his name was, and he was the one teaching everything I was missing as well as how to firebend. I didn't have much of a say in the matter. On the other hand, I couldn't be happier. I was a bender. There was no complaining there. Would I have chosen a different element had I been given the choice? Sure. Water and earth were far more practical, hell, air was the most practical of them all, it was everywhere.

Fire, though, sure, it had its uses, especially in combat, but with it came an attached negative connotation with everyone who wasn't in the Fire Nation. We were known for one thing, burning down other peoples' things. Not the best reputation to have.

"How do you expect to survive on a battlefield if you can't even bend your own element?"

"I survived long enough in the slums." I said, without knowing why. I realized how stupid I was to talk back the second the words had already come out.

"You survived because there was nobody gunning for you specifically. Now, though, now that people know what you are capable of-" he said, closing the distance between us, "You'll be target number one. A little firebender bringing 'pain and suffering' to those around him. They'll kill you before you get a chance unless you know how to kill **them** first. Got it?"

I nodded my head. "Yes, sir."

He sighed. "Then, go. It's the solstice today. Sage will be performing mast if you're into that bullshit." He left the dojo before I could, leaving me alone in the room.

 _It_ _ **was**_ _the solstice today. And I was going to have a conversation with someone, or better yet, some_ _ **thing**_ _today._

I looked back at that straw man one last time and for some reason, the open space in his neck appeared far larger than it ever had before. I shifted my weight to my left side, raising my right leg, letting the energy flow through it at an unprecedented speed and set off a blast of fire directly to its neck where it promptly burned right through its neck, sending the head tumbling down off of the shoulders onto the ground with a loud _clang_ as the Earth Kingdom helm struck the ground.

I was getting answers tonight.

I chose to head to my room immediately afterwards. The sun was already beginning to set, and I didn't have much time until the day was done, and the solstice was over. I planned to get every answer I could today.

The second I close the door to mine own room, 222, I could feel the change in the atmosphere. I didn't need the light hovering in front of me, guiding me, to tell me they were ready to speak to me.

I walked over to the door that led into room 221, the one my room connected to, opened it, and found myself walking not into a steel room, or a stone one for that matter, but an open forest. The trees were of black bark and white leaves, the sky was a dark purple tint and I knew, from the stories I had heard in the slums over the last 11 years of my life, I was in the spirit world. And it was big.

I looked around me to see that this forest extended in every cardinal direction with no end in sight. "What?" I asked nobody in particular. "Should I just choose a direction in walk?"

A small orb of light holding no definite dimensions appeared in front of me, providing me with an incentive to follow it for a reason I couldn't put a finger on. I followed it. I followed it and saw the world change around me a pace unbefitting the pace I was walking. One moment I was in that forest, the next I was on a cliffside with a sea of fog to both my sides, the next I was in a desert with a structure in the center of it larger than any city I had before witnessed. I then walked in a gray waste of a clearing with red gray hills and mountains surrounding me on every side. Two craters stood on each side and a single, red, tree resided in the center.

The orb of white light that I had been following up to now stopped in its tracks and changed color. It was no longer the same white orb but had become a dark red color. It changed directions, leading me directly toward the tree. I made a judgement call. I wasn't following the same thing that had led me here, but, wherever it had led me up to this point had been more or less on tract with its original destination. What harm was there in going slightly further.

I followed it, its colors becoming darker as we approached the tree, growths protruding from its figure. It was enough to stop me in my tracks. Whatever was controlling this orb had noticed. I got the feeling it had turned back to check on me. It made some sort of motion, pleading me to advance slightly more, but I was starting to have doubts, and for good reason.

I heard that same voice come to my mind. "A little closer now." The first voice I heard. _Vaatu._ I remembered the note I read back in Citadel.

I stopped in my tracks, facing the side of the tree. This clearly was not the angle he had hoped to encounter me at. The world around me rotated and before I knew it, I was facing the hollow in the tree head on, a Black and Red figure with a single central orange eye trapped within.

"So. you're Vaatu."

His figure, slightly smaller than I had imagined him, moved to the front of his cell. "Then you've heard of me. I do hope you haven't been lies."

"Have I? From what I've heard, you're quite the psychopath."

He chuckled. "Do tell. Who was it that told you these, rumors? Was it Raava or Wan?"

I had spoken with Raava since we last met. She told me about Wan, the original Avatar and how he had saved the world from Vaatu's influence and trapped him here. It **did** strike me as rather romantic, but those were some welcome answers to a few of the millions of questions I had, so I took them.

"Yes. It was Raava." He said. "I figured as much. She always was envious of my ability to alter the world as I saw fit, make it how it was meant to be. She was desperate enough to enlist the aid of a human."

"You're speaking to one right now, asshole. If you're trying to make a point to me, I suggest you try being nicer."

"I meant no offense. Wan proved my opinion of humanity to be, well, incorrect. You are more capable than we imagined, progressing in technology and culture at an unprecedented rate. Wan was unfortunate enough to become influenced by Raava. He could have been so much more had he listened to me."

"Sounds to me like you wanted to use him as a tool."

"No. Not a tool. An ally. He made a mistake, but you. No, you wouldn't make the mistake he did. You are aware that the Avatar is the fusion of man and Raava. I must, hand it to her, she's impressed me with what's she accomplished with the Avatar, but you, you could be so much more. What if I told you I could make you the Avatar."

I wanted to laugh. A few chuckles even made their way out. "I'm sorry, but-". I took another break to laugh. "Sorry, but you are just so full of shit. You just want me to free you from your little tree right there. As uncomfortable as it seems, you're gonna be there a while longer. I'm not interested."

The colors in his figure became more alive as he rushed to the forefront of his cell exclaiming "You cocky filth!" The orb of light grew darker as it grew limb shaped like claws and grew in size, approaching me. I was thinking of places to run when a light shone in the sky. The purple tint in the sky vanished, replaced by a light blue. A figure the exact same shape as Vaatu, but instead of red and black, white and blue descended. The orb of light returned to its original white state and Vaatu, within the confines of his cell, seemed to shrink in size.

"What have you told him!?" Raava asked Vaatu, approaching his cell.

"Only the truth! How there is not one avatar and how you have broken the balance."

"There was balance, once, but you overstepped and brought chaos to the world. This is your punishment!"

"Please, child!" he spoke, facing me once more. "Free me!"

He was cut off by Raava, who shrouded the entrance to his tree with a blinding white light.

She turned her attention to me. For the first time, I saw the figure that had been speaking to me every light over the last few weeks. "So." She spoke. "You arrived."

"As summoned." I said, adding my own trade mark sarcasm to it.

"I do hope my messenger did not face much interference."

"Only a little. What was that, him corrupting your orb?"

"Vaatu is skilled in, altering, the world to how believes it is meant to be. He believes in nothing but chaos and creates it wherever he treads. As long as he romans free, dark prevails and there is no balance. Only so long as I keep him restrained can there be balance."

"But now you reign and he's a prisoner."

"Perhaps in this world, there will never be balance, but Avatar Wan brought balance to the physical world when he closed the bridge between our worlds. He did what he had to in order to save his people."

"I see. So, tell me. I'm here now. Does this mean we can finally start answering my questions?"

"I will answer what I can and tell you what I must. I will allow you to begin."

 _Finally._

"First off, why did you talk to me? Why did you start communicating with me?"

"The Winter solstice was approaching. Time was limited and Vaatu had his own interest in you. It was vital I reach you first."

"I'm older than a year old. Why now?"

"Because the state your life is in?"

"Oh. So now that I'm not at a constant risk of being killed in my sleep, you're ready to invest in me?"

Her voice rose. "It's now that your life is more at risk than ever that I contact you!"

I felt a tense feeling in my chest grow. "What do you mean?"

"You think that just because you have a soft bed and a roof over your head you are safer than you were in those streets?!"

"Well. Yeah. Kind of."

She scoffed. "Then you do not know what you are up against."

"The Earth Kingdom?"

"The Fire Nation!"

"I'm on their side, lady!"

"Are you. You think yourself safe because you are on their side of the battlefield?! With what you are, a bender, they will put you in the most dangerous positions you will imagine. You will be faced with death day after day. You must leave."

"Leave? You mean the Fire Nation?"

"If you hope to live."

"I'm going to need more than that. Right now, they're providing me with food, shelter, and training. I'm aware what I'm going to face once I'm put on a battlefield, but that's a ways away." _I'll be 18 by then._

"It's sooner than you believe."

 _Fine. 16. Hell, maybe 14._ "Whatever. Point is, I'm not just going to leave because you told me this."

"I don't count on it. You will leave when you see fit. I know that much, but you will wish you left sooner."

"What do you care about me anyway? Who am I to you?"

"This. This is what I came to tell you about in the first place."

"Which is…"

"The world needs you."

"I find that doubtful."

"Joke as you like, it's true. The world is in peril and requires your aid."

"That's what we have an Avatar for, isn't it? Shouldn't you be with him or her right now and be guiding them on whatever life journey they're on. They'll probably be in the Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom right now assuming the other one died young. Hell, if the Earth Kingdom one died too, they'll probably be in the Fire Nation by now. Sad to say it, but they're probably safest there. They sure as hell won't be an airbender."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"You're right. I don't. Which is precisely why you're coming to the wrong person."

I was tired of this. I turned around to leave back in the direction I came, but she flew directly in front of me.

"You are the closest we have to the Avatar now."

"And why's that?"

"I cannot tell you right now."

"Then we have nothing more to talk about then."

"There are some things you must learn on your own!"

"Tell me this." I demanded. "Why do you give a damn about what happens in the physical world?"

"Because your world is at stake."

"By whom, the Fire Nation? So, what if they take over? That's how the world works. Empires rise. Empires fall."

"There is more at stake than the cycle of human warfare. If the war path of the Fire Nation continues as it is, there will cease to be a world."

"So, what would you have me do? Take up arms with the Earth Kingdom? Fight for a free Earth Kingdom? Are you just some kind of high tech propaganda poster because if so, well done, I'm impressed."

"I would ask you not to fight for any nation, but to defend your world from a force that would sooner see it destroyed than conquered."

"You clearly haven't been on Earth in a while, but I'll say this: as appropriate as it sounds, I don't think the Fire Nation intends on ruling over the ashes of the world."

"The will of a Nation may be different than that of its ruler. A single man in power can have all the influence in the world."

"As somebody who's been declaring my allegiance to him every morning and reading about everything he's done for the last few months, Azulon isn't the kind of person to light the world aflame."

"It will not be him who sets the world aflame. It will be a new ruler. One who will use the power of the stars to create a new world in his image out of the ashes. It is him you must defeat."

"And why me? There's millions of people in this world, all of whom more qualified. So why me?"

"It is as I have said. You are the closest we have to the Avatar."

"And I guess handing me over to Vaatu and making a real Avatar out of me is out of the picture, is it not?"

"It is, but you are one of our last hopes for the world. Many have seen you through your journey up to this point. And many have died for you. Two of them you have met. One of whom you've witnessed the death of."

 _Two of them I've met? One of whom I've witnessed the death of?"_

"Who?"

"One of them still has use. One of them will continue to guide you. There will be more on you journey. The day in your world ends. It's important you leave now. If you live to see the solstice next year, we will talk."

With that, she disappeared, and I was in the stone room, roots growing from the cracks, vines entering through the windows. This was the same room that had had the light coming from between the cracks. That same light was there, but stronger this time around. And something was telling me to reach what was on the other side.

I pried my fingers between the cracks and pried the center stone out. It finally budged, and I was able to pull it out. Behind it, was a book. A journal by the looks of it. I pulled it out and the wall was replaced by the same metallic doorway I recognized. I looked behind me at the Spirit World for one last time before I entered my own. I intended on living long enough to come back. I opened the doorway and walked back into my world.

I woke in my bed the following morning, light shining through the window. I could tell the door to my neighboring room was locked just by looking at it. And on my desk sat that same book I had dreamt of. SO maybe I wasn't completely insane.


	12. Chapter 11: Progress?

**Luke**

The first hit struck gold, but I continued with the form nonetheless. The straw man was already ablaze when I lunged forward with a punch, sending a larger, but not significant blast of fire straight towards him. The blast truck in the unarmored armpit of the burning man of straw. I took the necessary step backwards, bringing my hands together to focus on a larger blast that I promptly sent towards. I didn't waste time seeing if it struck but sent the fire blast of fire from a kick, planted it on the ground, mid spin behind me, jumped into the air, performing a rather perfect tornado kick, sending that last blast of fire into the straw man right in the chest. My feet landed on the ground in the perfect position to immediately continue the process with the other three straw men occupying the other sides of the room. In less than 10 seconds, they were no more than ashes and piles of scorched earth kingdom armor.

I stood at attention, not daring to break position. I waited until he had walked to all four piles of armor, then to me, stood in front of me for a good minute, then bowed and said "You're improving. Quickly. You are not yet the firebender that's expected of you, but you're getting there." _So, I have expectations in this world too, do I?_

I returned his bow, one hand perfectly straight placed atop my right fist, mimicking a flame with my hands.

"At ease" he said, and I raised myself from my bow, allowing myself to finally relax today. From the moment the sun rose, if not earlier, I had spent two months training with firebending master who remained nameless. Whenever I asked his name, his only reply was that his name was not important. I was beginning to doubt he had a name. When I searched for answers elsewhere, I got none. Danev had never even known there was a firebending master in Citadel. He had thought they were all sent to Ba-Sing-Se.

"You seem more focused. Dealt with what was clearly bothering you?"

"Yes sir." _More or less, I had. I had closure in a way I hadn't had before. I had reached the end of the rabbit hole and was satisfied with my answer. I was content._

"Good. Then I'll see you same time tomorrow morning. Don't eat breakfast or dinner. A good soldier knows how to fight with an empty stomach."

"Yes sir. Goodnight, sir."

"Goodnight."

And with that, I left while he lingered in his dojo. I wasn't sure if I should have volunteered to clean the mess I had created. Sure, I did as I was instructed, but I could have at least offered to help. I don't know.

I was supposed to meet with Danev, Aden, and Zaydi. She had come to hanging out with our little band of misfits more and more as of late. As for other students, some others had finally gotten over their initial fear or hatred of me, or both, and had started talking to me. Dazni was one of those who hadn't been an asshole from the start. He would stand up for me in front of Coach Zandar and the other students. We didn't see each other now as much as we used to considering I ran on a different schedule as him now, but I would catch him for a good talk every now and then during our two "designated hours of recreation prior to lights out."

It was nice. Making friends for a change. I came into this academy expecting to be persecuted against at every turn. And I was right. I **was** persecutedagainst at every turn, but that had passed in some manner of speaking. Either they got over it, or I had earned their respect. Either way, it was in the past, and I was glad for it.

Now that the whole issue with the solstice was past, I was feeling more comfortable. The door to 221 was locked and wasn't being opened anymore and I was happier for it. As for the book I had found, I had read it. It was a journal, with a fair share of pages ripped out, but I had read what I could. It belonged to the man who had been executed right when this all began. The day I saw too much. They day I got picked up by the Hornets. Damn. A lot had happened that day. I thought I had left it all in the past, but some of it still remained. The legacy of that man, Lee Shuni, or more accurately, Monk Gyani of the Air Nomads. He died for his legacy, what I held in my hands right now. I had read every word of it. It saddened me that he died for so little.

He wrote of the crimes of the Fire Nation, dating back to the initial colonization of the Earth Kingdom territories. He wrote of massacres, war crimes, deceitful tactics, and the topic he focused most on, the Genocide of the Air Nomads. I know what I was taught in the few months I was here at this academy. Of the heroic battle between the "Air Nation Army" and the legendary Fire Lord Sozin who "Used the power of the heavens to strike down the biggest threat to the Fire Nation."

I knew it was bullshit when I read it and I think everybody did unless there were so indoctrinated to the point they believed everything they read. It made no difference and it was sad to know he had died for it, after what I assumed must have been years spent hiding here, gathering all information he could, to what? Inspire more to rise up? Start a revolution inside the Fire Nation? Revive the Air Nomads?

It was one of his final statements near the close of the journal that did keep me wondering. _"_ _The Air Nation has fallen, but not all Air Nomads are dead. I have seen to that."_

I couldn't say what he meant by that. Whether he was referring to himself or somebody else. He wasn't referring to any idea in particular, no, he was referring to people. He would have used terminology like "Air Nation." If he meant an idea, right? Were there any still alive? Somewhere?

For the sake of not wanting to see an entire people go extinct, I hoped so. Nobody deserved that, but as for the rest of his journal, and this "evidence" of the wrath of the Fire Nation, it would do him no good. The Fire Nation was too indoctrinated to believe anything they read that spoke shit about their home, the Earth Kingdom was well aware of the Fire Nation's wrath by now, the Air Nomads probably even had a better idea, assuming any were left, and the Water tribe was, well, the Water Tribe. I don't think they were too concerned about what was going on in the real world.

I let the thoughts leave my mind as I entered the cafeteria and saw our little group motion me over. I sat next to Danev and across from Aden while Danev sat facing Zaydi, the two of them taking small peeks at each other between bites.

"Not going to eat anything?" I heard her ask me.

"Nah. If I had to watch the two of you going back and forth any longer, I think I would just puke it out. Besides, I'm under strict orders to starve myself, learn how to fight on an empty stomach."

"So you're really a firebender, then?" Aden asked. "Didn't believe it when Danev told me, but I saw you practicing in the courtyard the other day. You're not the same little shit I knew in the Hive, are you?"

"Guess not." I said as I tried to fake a smile, concealing the fact that I knew our entire family was dead while Aden sat right across from me believing them to be alive and well. _If I had to do this much longer, I_ _ **would**_ _break. I knew that much. Some how though, Aden's ignorance made him that much more likeable. He didn't have the same bloodlust he had while in the slums as there was no longer an enemy constantly at his throats and he was spending his time coming up with-_

"Danev." Aden whispered, diagonally from Danev, interrupting him from his private looking contest with Zaydi. "I think I came up with a new idea."

"Not now, Aden." He replied, obviously annoyed.

"It's a good one."

"What idea?" Zaydi asked.

If this was good for one thing, it was that it was teaching me to bullshit on the fly, because frankly, it was rather unfair forcing Danev to be the one to solely sell a different reality to Aden. I turned to Zaydi. "It's a plan he has to get his hands on more food rations. Hasn't worked so far, but he's determined it will."

"Danev, you'll want to hear this."

Danev looked down to his food, sighed, and stood up. "Fine, let's talk."

"It'll be quick." Aden promised.

Danev looked back to Zaydi as Aden searched for a nice discreet area to share with Danev his "brilliant" plan of escape. "Sorry."

She gave a nice, sweet, and innocent, but heartfelt chuckle as though she was right in tune to what "the boys" were thinking. Sometimes I pitied her more than Aden. Sure, Aden was being misled to believe all of his friends were alive, but at least he knew he was one of us while Zaydi was under a false impression. I liked her, but she would never know what had happened on the streets and how it had been, but she tried her best. "It's fine. Extra rations are well worth it."

I could see the scrunched-up look of confusion that came to Danev's face as he had no idea in hell what she was talking about, but a small nod of my head convinced him to dismiss it altogether as he went to talk with his blind friend.

I realized now I had never talked with Zaydi one on one in an occasion that wasn't her tending to me in the hospital-ward. I would learn that day that I was terrible at small talk. "So. You and Danev. Anything going on there?"

 **Danev**

I was trying with Aden. I really was. On the streets, he was a hard ass. Didn't take shit from anybody and frankly, he hated my guts. I'm sure, deep down, he kind of still did, but he understood he would need us to get out as we were all he had at the moment. That same understanding might help him down the road when he realized that statement was truer than he would have ever believed. Here, though, he only had one thing on his mind: home. I could see it in the way he walked off to his dorm every night when we finished our days together. It was as though he were walking into some stranger's room. That room wasn't his. This house wasn't his. His home was past this inner wall, in a lovely sandcrete apartment complex lovingly dubbed "The Hive." This desire for a home changed him, somewhat for the better, but mostly for the worse.

He was enthusiastic about the chance to return home as though every day that went by was a day closer to home. It took him weeks to get over Meeko's death. They were long weeks. He was his older hostile self, but worse, angry at anything and everything. I was half expecting him to snap and find him hanging from his ceiling one of those days, but he managed to get past it, with plenty of difficulty. Enough difficulty with which I was convinced to postpone the truth until further notice. I knew it would break him and I knew that would be it. It we could just find a way to get out of this city, get past these walls and onto a battlefield without him knowing about the corpses he was leaving behind, this could be put in the past.

For a while, I considered making up a fake story on how I had just received word through the grapevine that the Hornets were killed or had left the city. In one scenario, I tell him it was either the Fire Nation or Rats who did it. If I tell him it's the Fire Nation, Aden kills whoever he can while he's here and probably gets himself killed before getting to his second victim. If I tell him it was the Rats, Aden will without a doubt find a way back into the slums and when he realized the Rats are already dead and we had lied to him, he'll undoubtedly find a way back into the Military District just to kill me, Luke, and whoever else he could get his hands on.

So, what if I tell him the Hornets left without us? One, he would never believe it. Two, well, there is no two, he just wouldn't believe it. _Damnit!_

Aden found his corner and motioned me over. He started talking before I could calm him down. "Okay, during recreation 2 days ago, I was outside and along the inner wall, I saw what looked like a small warehouse. We all remember that warehouse people talked about in the streets, the one with the backdoor that led into the military district? What if we get out that way? Try to get some chores working in there and leave all together. You can take that cute nurse with you, whatever her name is, if you want.

I decided to ignore his comment about Zaydi and I humored him. "Well, we'd have to find out about how to even get chores around here. I don't think there's somebody we just go up to and ask 'Hey. Can I get some chores in the warehouse over there?'"

"Okay. Then we don't ask anybody and just pose as people working on it."

"Because there's nothing about sending four people, one of them the only nurse in Citadel, to work in a warehouse that anybody would find suspicious, right?"

"Fine. Then we don't take her along, but we-"

I was tired of this. "No, Aden."

"Danev, look. We can find a"

"No!" I said in a whispered shout loud enough to snap him out of his fantasies. "This isn't the cell in the Hive, this isn't one of those local prisons the Fire Nation used to have in the slums, and this sure as fuck is not a Rat base. The people here, are soldiers. There's firebenders here, people armed to the teeth, people trained to kill earthbending brutes and they're not all bumbling idiots focused on nothing but their two feet. These are soldiers Aden, and we are inside a military stronghold. Can you not see that?! There's not simple escape from this. We either do as we're told, or we die."

"I never took you as a nationalist, Danev. So, tell me, what exactly are we supposed to die while Riu, Goni, and the rest of them are out, trying to survive without us? You're his second in command for spirits sake! I'm the head of security now that Meeko's gone and Luke. Don't get me started on him. He's a fucking firebender. We get him out there, put our colors back on him and we're unstoppable. I feel stupid for hating his guts when he first came along, but holy hell, he's exactly what we need."

As much as I wanted to end this all right here, to tell him the truth, and end his fantasies of fortune and prosperity for the Hornets, I couldn't do it. Not because I wanted to spare him the heartbreak, no. He would deal with that one way or another. There was no avoiding it, but I had to minimize collateral as best as I could. Me, Luke, and Zaydi because I told her, were the only ones in this district save the soldiers and Zar'un who knew what had happened to the Hornets. The soldiers spent their time on the walls and Zar'un never showed his face. If Aden did learn, he would go out of his way to punish those who had deceived him. That much I knew. So I decided to let him play his games and hope he wore himself out.

"Fine, Aden, but listen to me. You don't bring this up around Zaydi anymore. She has nothing to do with this. You talk about this with me only and you stay out of trouble. You do not go ahead with anything without asking me first, got it?"

"So you're pulling rank on me, are you, number two?"

 _Damn it._ "Yes. I am."

Aden chuckled. He brought his hand up to his head in a mock salute before saying "Yes sir." And stalking out of the cafeteria. I worried about him, but I had chosen my side. If I couldn't save them all, I was sticking with Luke and Zaydi. Aden was a ticking bomb, and only a fool stays close to one.


	13. Chapter 12: Investigation

**Zar'un**

The thin paper sat on the desk between me and Gaz-di. I got it by messenger hawk this morning and for the first time in a while, I had realized just how unprepared I was.

"They're going to be here early." I said, both initiating the conversation and ceasing the awkward silence that had persisted between us for the last 2 minutes.

"The 15th?"

"Yes. Read it yourself if you don't believe me."

I had read through it over 10 times before I called a meeting with Gaz-di. Now I had not only every detail, but every word from the message in my head.

 _Journey to take less time than expected. Currents have favored us as well as the motherland's ingenuity. We expect to have arrived before months end. We recommend completing the training of all current recruits as quickly as possible. We have extended the age of recruitment now to those of 10 years or more. Complete their training as well. Attached are material they will need for infantry and armored deployment. We have reviewed the list of students and assigned the roles as followed:_

 _Zanrick Sotsanu-Infantry Gotso Mir'ak-Armored Gan Hidu-Armored_

 _Zog'ing Mikasu-Armored Danev-Infantry Zanag Sotsanu-Armored_

 _Ziring Zurang-Infantry Zosro Tozarro-Armored Gonenh Zanik-Armored_

 _Dazni Gezanuk-Infantry Oran Tozarro-Armored Gyatsan Zom'aik-Infantry_

 _Gozdan Gyanzik-Armored Zorim Goran-Armored Gi Gu-Armored_

 _Zihe Zutarro-Infantry Aden-Infantry Luke-Armored_

 _We recommend you begin training of the attached material immediately. The attack on Ba-Sing-Se can only be accomplished with our aid. For the Fire Nation. For Fire Lord Azulon._

It scared me half to death to see the name of the 10 and 11-year olds on that list. It took me reading over 9 more times to confirm it.

"I believe you."

"Good."

"So what role do I play?"

I motioned to the list of material that had come with the letter. I had skimmed that less than the letter. Figured It wasn't my duty to focus on that aspect. I remember reading "field manuals" for the newest model of our tanks. They event sent a sample with them out of the kindness of our heart in case we lacked any of our own. And of course, we did. We weren't exactly a motor pool, Citadel. It would be a pain gathering an entire class around a single desk to read through it, but I'd leave that up to the teachers.

"Teach them what's on that list according to the other list of our students."

 _It always comes down to fucking lists._

He grabbed the lists from where they sat on the desk and read through them, the students first, then the material, shaking his head the whole time until he finished and looked up to where I sat.

"I don't have half the stuff on this list."

I grabbed the sample and slid it to where he sat. "That's all we're getting from the 15th. I recommend you make due with whatever else you have because either way, those kids are being deployed by mid-February. You decide whether they die in the first 10 minutes or the first 10 hours.

"So you're giving up on them?"

"Of course I'm not. I would have them live 10 lifetimes if I could. And that's what you and your teachers are going to do. Make them live as long as possible. Maybe it will only buy them minutes or hours, but either way, that's time you bought them."

"If I may ask, I saw Zihe's name on the list. He's still recovering from the burns. He can't even see out of his right eye."

I sighed. "Gaz-di, we're putting 10-year olds on the field and you're worried about him? I think he's the least of our concerns. I recommend you update your teachers and get them ready for the new material."

He stood up from my desk and bowed. "Yes sir." He said before promptly leaving. As he opened the door, I noticed Lieutenant Zarrow waiting outside and motioned him in through the cracks of the door. He noticed and pushed the doors open once more before they could close from the principal that had just left.

The last time I had seen him, I had gotten another scrap of his Gyani's damn journal. "Trust nobody." Like he was trying to remind himself not to trust the Fire Nation. What an asshole. The fact Zarrow was now standing here again didn't get me excited. I would get the first word here, not him.

"Zarrow. I didn't make you lieutenant to give me bad news. Tell me this isn't bad news."

"I'm afraid it is." He didn't bother sitting, but rather placed the slip of paper directly in front of me, folded as though he wanted nobody else to find it. I didn't blame him. We were the only two who knew about what Gyani had left behind. I started unfolding it while he said "An engineer found it in the pipeworks yesterday morning, scrunched up on the floor. It was unfolded when we found it."

I read it:

 _Trust Raava._

 _Watch out for Vaatu._

I sighed. I had thought this was over, but more and more kept popping up out of nowhere?

"So it's another page from the journal then."

"I thought so too sir, but I. I noticed something. I gave it to our scribe to make sure and he confirmed my suspicions. This was written recently. Just a little over a month ago."

 _What?!_ I heard my chair scrape back before I had even known I stood up. "How!?"

"The ink. The scribe could tell you better, but it was less dried. I don't remember how he put it, but-"

"No, idiot! I mean 'how' as in we already decapitated the man who wrote them! So is there a headless corpse writing messages in my city, did we kill the wrong man, or are there more like him, damnit?!"

"I don't know, sir. I j-"

"You are the commander of this garrison. Find how."

He gulped, and I just realized then I was holding him by the cloth of his uniform. I let go and he stumbled backwards. He saluted, too frightened to mutter a word, and left."

"He would start with the room again. It was right back to step one. I had been following ghosts before. Now I was following something all too alive. I wasn't sure which was worse."

 **Luke**

I was half asleep as I walked through the halls of the military academy, stumbling back to my own room. Today had been longer than the others. I was kept in class longer, going through form after form after form. It felt strange to be walking normally again, not preparing for another punch, or a kick, or a combination of both.

I ate dinner in the cafeteria alone, everybody else already else. I ate as I tried to piece together why everybody else got to sleep while I was hearing the words "again" one after another for 14 hours straight.

I couldn't feel my arms. My legs felt like they were about to collapse in on each other and I only realized after staring mindlessly at my food for 10 minutes that I wasn't hungry. I ate it anyway. The slums had told me not to ever throw a single piece of food away. It wasn't something I was planning on starting to do.

I was walking back to my room when I noticed 4 Fire Nation soldiers gathered outside my room. My thoughts immediately went to the journal lying between my mattress and the frame of my bed. I don't know why it did, but I had to be sure. I hastened my steps to get to my room as quickly as possible.

"What's going on?" I asked the nearest soldier. I hadn't expected a reply, so I was surprised when he answered with: "Go back to your room. This is none of your concern."

I looked at the door and saw that the third soldier had just filed in. They had just got here. I could get inside before they found anything.

"This **is** my room."

"221?"

"222"

He looked at the worn engraved steel plate next to my door. "Damnit." He mumbled to himself. He looked inside my room and yelled, "Wrong room! Take the one next door! Get it open!" They were after the journal. At the very least, they were after something inside that room. And I had it.

The soldiers filed out and tried 221. As I expected, it didn't budge. While they worked on it, I took the first step to get inside my room, but the one in charge judging by his rank paldron turned to me and said, "Door's locked. We not to go through yours. Stand aside."

 _Damnit._ I did as I was told and stood off to the side of my door. On the bright side, it wasn't me they were after. At least, they didn't think so.

"Door's been sealed, lieutenant! Just like the other one!"

 _Sealed? Damn. Raava wasn't leaving any trace of herself, was she?_

"Damnit!" I heard the lieutenant say from within my room. "Private Zirek, go to the armory and bring the blasting jelly. We're blasting this open!"

I stepped into the room. "Wait, what?!"

"I told you to wait outside!"

I stepped closer to the bed. "You're going to blow up my room?"

"We're going to blow the door."

"Why?" Another step closer.

"Doesn't matter why."

I took another step and I was standing in front of my bed now, in front of where my book was hidden. "Doesn't this seem kind of overkill? Every room has a window like that one."

They looked. I raised the mattress every so slightly with my left hand behind me and with my right, slipped the journal between my pants and my waist. "You can just go through the window that goes to that room."

He turned back to me. "No time. We're going in, now!"

"Is there a problem?"

"Don't worry about it. Go to sleep."

"You're about to blow up my room."

"Then sleep somewhere else."

"Can you at least not blow up the door connecting the room and go through the one that leads to the hallway?"

"Will that shut you up?"

"Yes."

"Then we will. Now scram."

I did. I walked out facing them, keeping my back away from them lest they notice a rectangular shape where my ass should be. I reached the end of the hall walking the same way, not daring to turn around.

I walked down the stairs to the library, found the same bookshelf with the hollow floor. Hiding next to my butt was probably the most wanted item in Citadel right now. I removed it and checked around me before moving the book case to reveal the hollow in the ground. I found a spot between the floor of the library and the ceiling of the pipeworks room, slipping the journal in there. I would remember where it was.

If somebody found it. So be it. They wouldn't find it on me.

I eventually found a comfortable spot in a corner underneath the metallic stairway on the first floor. As I tried to sleep, I heard an explosion coming from above me, followed by dust falling from the ceiling above me, coating me in a fresh layer of dirt.

I just really hoped they didn't blow up my room. I was starting to like it.


	14. Chapter 13: Master

**Luke**

"Stop!" I heard his voice call from the sidelines.

I landed from the kick I had been in the middle of and resisted the urge to continue the form, watching the flame whither away in front of me. I checked my feet to make sure I had kept the correct form. My arms were right where they should have been, in an offensive stance, ready for the next move. The flame had been more than adequate. I could feel the heat and it had been much better than other flames that he stopped me for so that couldn't be it. Why did I stop?

I turned my head towards him and he was holding a small notepad, doing what appeared to be checking boxes until he looked up to me.

I shrugged my elbows begging him to explain what in hell I was doing wrong. He didn't seem to catch my meaning, or he did, but chose to ignore it, and went back to his notes.

"Hey!" I called.

He looked up.

"Can you tell me what I did wrong?"

"Your form is sloppy?"

"What?"

"Your form. It's sloppy. If this were a fight, you'd be dead, lying in a puddle of your own blood, your head caved in by an earthbender's rock. Now try it again."

I shook my head, annoyed. I had done it right. I knew that much, but once again, I ran through it again. I was being kept late again. It didn't bother me too much aside from the fact I was starving. Made lessons a lot more desperate as the better I did, the sooner I ate, and slept. Definitely slept.

The Firebenders that had checked my room, as I had expected, blew it up trying to get into the room next door. When I went back to check on it, my room was littered in ashes, and there was just a large scorch mark where the door was, still locked. _It hadn't even worked._ Now I was bunking with Danev. I didn't dare bring the journal to his room. I kept it stashed under the floor of the library and checked on it every week at midnight following my longer lessons. I had more or less been homeless for the last week. I had no idea why the Fire Nation had become so interested in this journal and hell, I didn't even know if that was it, I was just guessing. But it seems to convenient. I go through all that bullshit with Raava and Vaatu or whatever their names are, using that damn room as my nightly commute, and then having the Fire Nation barge in and-

A blast of fire hit me square in the chest, knocking me to the ground, panting for breath.

"You're distracted!" he yelled. I saw him winding for the second shot and I scrambled to my feet as quickly as I could.

I managed to get out of the way of the second shot, but it had been close. Too close. I could feel the heat against my face and the sparks against my bare hands. I had barely gotten to my feet when I had decided I was done.

"What the hell!?"

"You're unprepared. You're sloppy. If they were to put you on a battlefield, you'd be dead within a day! Is that what you want?!"

"Well what the hell do you expect?! I'm eleven. I'm a kid. Not a soldier. I'm still fucking training and I'm not exactly expecting to be put on a battlefield against the entire fucking Earth Kingdom army any time soon."

"Yes. You're right. You are a kid. You're immature, slow, and sloppy. And the day you get put on the frontlines is a lot closer than you may want to think."

No. I know exactly how it is. I've seen the child soldiers. 14, hell, 12 years old. I can handle that. I have time. I knew more than he thought I knew, and I intended to show him just that.

"You're one to talk." I braved. "Look at you. You're a soldier far past his prime. You've outlived your usefulness and I haven't yet reached it. We're both useless people in soldiers' armor. We're both slow. We're both sloppy. We're not soldiers. Not yet and not anymore!"

He glared at me. He glared at me so hard I was expecting another blast of fire at any moment. I was ready for it. I saw the opening to my left where I could dodge and throw at him what I had to offer in return. Instead, he set down his quill and paper and walked up to me, up to the center of the dojo, motioning for me to stand aside.

I stood my ground, confused as to what he was doing. When he turned to me once more, I got the message and backstepped to the sidelines, waiting for him to do whatever he was he had in mind.

At the center of the room he stood, straightened his back, keeping his hands an inch in front of his torso, raising them as he breathed them, and lowering them once again as he exhaled. He repeated this process a few times. The last time, I could fire escaping through his nose and some through his mouth as he exhaled. Then, he began.

The motions he proceeded were a blur to me. I could only catch a single move here and there out of hundreds I was too close to comprehend. Of the ones I could see, I saw bring a flame up from his foot, kicking it up to chest level as though it were a kid's ball, catching it with his hands, nurturing the flame to a size greater than his chest before raising it above his own head as head crouched, creating a ring of fire that grew around him. It was no normal ring either where everything past the wall of fire was safe, no, everything within was fire as well, all elevated at, say, 5 feet. I had to duck to avoid being burnt by the ever-expanding ring that only dissipated when it reached the wall.

He raised himself, calling in the flame he had just created to himself, forming a ball of fire around his body, constantly moving the flames in distinct patterns that kept me mesmerized from where I was still crouched on the ground. He sent over 30 balls of fire from his shield, only slightly diminishing its size, sending them spinning around him in an unpassable barrier before sending them off equally from where they were around the room to the straw targets that lined the walls, setting each and every one of them ablaze.

And then as though he were still in possession of the fire within each and every one of these targets, he raised his arms, his body still protected by the surrounding shield of fire and clenched his fists. All at once, the targets around the room, burst into flame with rather large explosions, sending straw across the room. The straw that made it far enough to reach his shield disintegrated in mid-air, sending only ashes to reach him.

That was the only thing he did that I was able to comprehend. The rest was all, beautiful. Flame surrounded the room, half of it now ablaze, me having taken cover behind a non-straw training dummy until he was done. The rest of the fire in the room, he soon summoned back to himself, absorbing it back into his body, extinguishing the fire that was the room.

I didn't know what to say. I was still mesmerized by what I had seen occur directly in front of me.

He turned to me and said "You're right on many parts. I **am** too old, and you **are** too young, but we are still soldiers. Now more than ever, our Nation has need of us and you still don't understand what the element you possess is. You don not play with it as though some toy. You possess death, destruction, hate. Out there, only that will keep you alive. That is the curse of fire. You will not be seeing me anymore. I've prepared you as best as I could. I leave tonight to guide the 15th armored division to this city. They will bring you to war and unless you learn to defend yourself, you will die."

"You said I won't be seeing you again. Aren't you coming back here? Or going to Ba-Sing-Se to fight?"

He frowned. "No. I am done fighting. I had bestowed the power of destruction onto too many. First my apprentice, and now you. I can only hope you don't turn out as he did. I am going away after I find the 15th. Where? I cannot say. Maybe West. I hear the colonies are nice this time of the year."

He started for the exit until I stopped him and asked "Wait. You never told me your name. After all the shit you put me through, it's the least you can do."

He turned to me and smiled. "My name, is Jeong Jeong." Goodbye, Luke. And good luck."


	15. Chapter 14: Truth

**Luke**

The ceremony was a small private affair. Nothing too noticeable, nothing too fantastic. All that were in attendance was the graduating class. Nobody more. No parents, no teachers, just us and the Principal. I don't know how many among us knew what was really going on. I think I was definitely the youngest who did. We were separated by age and while the other kids around me cheered and goofed around with each other, I could see Danev off with Aden, worried out of his mind. He knew what was coming. I didn't doubt Aden knew, but the look in his told me he was indifferent. Maybe he wasn't planning on sticking around that long.

What Jeong Jeong had told me was still fresh in my mind. The other kids didn't realize it, but I did. I was going to war.

That had been a week ago. The 15th wasn't far off. Whenever I patrolled the wall in my newly issued Fire Nation uniform and armored plating, I would look into the horizon to the east, expecting to see a line of tanks come over it any seconds. I would look at the light snow every now and then, expecting to see it had turned black with soot rather than the white it was supposed to be, but they hadn't come yet. _They would come. I'm not getting out of this that easily._

Danev knew too, but there was nothing he could do about it. He saw that. If he wasn't too busy watching Aden every second of the day, making sure he didn't run off and get himself or us killed.

 _We have to tell him eventually._ I thought to myself. It felt cruel misleading him for this long, convincing him his friends, his family was still alive. And now, atop the wall, he was patrolling fifty feet above his home. Not the shelter that Danev and I had grown accustomed to calling it, but home. He didn't belong in the Fire Nation, even I could see that. His home was with the Hornets and he was lucky he didn't die with it so why should I feel guilty when all me and Aden are doing is stopping him from dying with them.

Hell, I didn't even know what Aden would do. Maybe he would do exactly what Danev, and I, to some extent, expected him to do: run wild and kill everybody responsible, for their deaths and his misleading, that he could find. I fit under both categories. The deaths of the Hornets still went where I did. I **was** the reason they were dead. There was no going around that. We **had** the upper hand. The Rats were in hiding and it wouldn't have been hard to find them. People would have flocked to the Hornets seeing they were in charge, looking for Rats for the promise of food and shelter. They would've been dead in a heartbeat. _Miro too, and Reek. Especially Reek. He was good, but not good enough. What would I have done if we came face to face on the battlefield, not in the way we did at the end, but intent on killing each other? Would he have asked me to leave one last time? Would I have even gone?_

 _What would have happened if we did kill the Rats. The Hornets would all be Fire Nation soldiers by now, patrolling these walls with me. Aden would have felt at home. He would have missed the slums, yeah, but he'd be with family._ And now we were keeping up that illusion, of family. It was all that kept Aden from jumping down at a moment's notice and finding the bones of Riu, Ladle, and all the rest.

Still no tanks. It was just plains over the horizon. No banners, no soldiers, or tanks in sight. I wondered where they were now. Had they landed yet? Were they docking right at this moment? Or were they right past the horizon, and the second I turned back would be the moment they appeared?

"Luke!" I heard a voice, snapping me out of my daydream. It was Danev, Aden at his side, eyes wandering towards the slums. "We were supposed to meet you at the Southeast, not east. You're slacking on your patrol, private."

Every batch of soldiers had to be given ranks upon graduating and for once, the Fire Nation had done it according to merit, not status. Danev had been given the rank Private first class, and he had no hesitation to pull rank on me at a moment's notice. It was obvious he found it funny, but then again, we all did this last week. We tried to find the humor in anything around us to take us away from the fact we would be deployed on a battlefield a few weeks from that moment.

His smiles died quickly, and he joined me in gazing at the horizon. "Haven't seen them yet?"

"No. The second I turn away, they'll come right over it and then we'll be dead. Maybe not right at that moment, but we'll for all intents and purposes be dead."

"You don't know that."

"But you do. You just won't say it because I'm younger than you. I know I'm going to die, Danev. I'm 11 years old. Hell, I could be 12 for all I know. I'm a nameless, birth-less, street urchin. I gave myself my own name and my own birth day and I change that around every now and then depending on what day I think sounds cooler to have a birthday on. Maybe I'm a big 8-year-old or I'm a small 14-year-old. Who knows and who cares? I'm an unimportant, unnamed, weak, who-gives-a-fuck-years-old kid. And I'm going to be dead before I turn 13."

"It's the same with all of us, Luke." He replied. "Except I'll be dead before I'm 15 and Aden before he's 15 too."

"Not me." Aden said from where he was looking at the slums, kneeling on the ground. "I'm gonna live forever."

Danev looked to and simply shook his head, telling me not to bother. I snuck a last glance at Aden before turning back to the horizon. Now, we talked in a lower voice.

"How is he?" I asked.

"Fine. Why shouldn't he be?"

"Okay. You keeping an eye on him?"

Aden spoke up again. I was nervous he had heard us, but his statement put that worry aside. "I think I recognize the kid down there. I think he helped us find some Rats before. Isn't that the rich people road?"

Danev turned my attention back away from Aden by saying "It's nothing. Just getting some nostalgia. Yes, I'm keeping an eye on him. How else am I supposed to keep him from running away at a moment's notice? Frankly, I need the 15th or whatever it was to get here as soon as fucking possible. The sooner we get him away from here, the better. I've done what I could to stop him this long, but we've been on patrol for a week. Do you know how damn much I have to say 'No. That one's watching us.', see that kid down there? He works for the Fire Nation. He'll report you.' It's not going to work forever. I'm amazed he hasn't run off yet."

We both turned at the exact same moment. And as if on cue, he was gone.

"You're fucking kidding me, right?"

Danev ran to the edge and looked down. He turned back to me and shook his head. Nothing. I turned to the rick and above the gate to the homeland road, I saw the hatch shut leading to the interior of the wall. "He's in the wall!" I yelled.

We ran. Danev got ahead and opened the hatch for me, allowing me to ump right in. Avoiding the latter as it would take to long, I fell ungracefully on the steel catwalk as Danev came in behind me, sticking his landing and running off. In here, the only light came from arrow slits in the walls. It wasn't nearly enough.

"Where is he?" I heard Danev yell as he looked over the rails of the catwalks for a sign. I got to my feet finally and created a flame in my hands, focusing everything I could on it, allowing it to grow to the point that we could now see what was going on around us. I put everything I could into keeping the flame alive until I heard Danev say "He's there!"

Assuming I had done my part, I let the flame die. It took some readjusting to the darkness, but we knew where he was now, and we were in pursuit. We took the ladder down to the same level Aden was at, jumping off 10 rungs above the catwalk to save what time we could. "Aden, stop!" Danev yelled.

I hadn't expected a response, but he provided one nonetheless. "It's alright. I just need to have a talk with him. I recognized that kid."

"Who did he see?" I asked between breaths as we ran.

"Doesn't matter who. He'll know."

Aden took a turn at a catwalk, seemingly oblivious at the fact he was being cased. The poor kid probably thought we were running with him, not after him. And that's where he made a mistake. Rather than going all the way down to the bottom of the wall, he stopped at a door leading to an archer's platform facing the slums. The fact they had archers' positions facing both in and out wasn't a comforting idea considering I had leaved beneath their watch for most of my life.

Aden opened the door and the sunlight shone in, nearly blinding the three of us who were all together now.

Aden stepped outside into the light and even from behind him, I could see thousands of pounds raised from his shoulders. Danev moved to stand next to him, but I could see Aden's smile clear enough from where I was.

"I can land on that roof from here. It's what? Only 6 feet? I can manage that. I've done worse."

"Aden." Danev began.

"I know what you're going to say. It's stupid. I'll be caught. That there's some Fire Nation spy right there waiting for me to make a move. I know you're trying to protect me, but it's right there. Home. We can go back."

"Aden. Home's not the same as it once was."

"I know. I heard about the fighting between the Hornets and the Rats. I heard people are dying. That's exactly why they need us. We can end this war together. Those slums are pretty much ours. We're three military trained soldiers and Luke." He turned to me and I took a few steps back when I saw the fanatic look on his face. "Luke's a firebender. Think of what we could do. We'd be unstoppable."

Aden motioned forward, preparing to jump, but Danev grabbed him by the forearm holding him back. This time, he spoke louder, with more meaning behind his words. "Aden. We can't go back."

Aden chuckled. "And why's that, Danev? Afraid Riu will be pissed Meeko's dead? He'll be happy enough to see the three of us, right? The Hornets need us."

Danev said it quietly at first, but I heard, and I knew Aden did too. My heart skipped two beats once I heard him say "The Hornets are gone."

There was a pause. "What?"

"They're dead, Aden."

He let go of his grip on Aden, perhaps hoping he would jump rather than exact the revenge he had expected from Aden.

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

"Bu- How?! How do you know?! You were in Citadel with me! How would you know?!"

"Because I didn't stay in Citadel."

I saw Aden's fist clench and I could see sweat forming at his brow, beginning to trail down his face. He was scared. He didn't know what to believe. He doubted what was being said, but that doesn't matter. When you hear somebody's dead, you believe them. That's just how death strikes you. Suddenly.

Danev continued. "The Fire Nation let me go on the condition the Hornets would finish off the Rats."

"And you agreed?!" Aden yelled, his face reddening and his voice rising.

"I didn't have a choice. The food we stole would only have lasted so long. We needed a long-term deal. One to save the Hornets."

"Oh? And how did that work out considering you're standing in front of me, telling me they're all dead!?"

"There was a battle between the Rats and us. We held our end and the Rats died, but so did the Hornets. The Fire Nation took us in."

"No. No. That's bullshit, and you know it. I know Riu and I know Miro. He, or she, or whatever the fuck you told me it was would never commit to an actual fight. Miro would never have that many Rats out of hiding at once and Riu would never be so stupid as to do the same."

That hit me extra hard, considering I was the cause of both. I was the reason that confrontation had occurred, and it was eating away at me as this argument went all, and Danev did all he could to absorb and deflect all the blame away from me as best as he could. "Nobody could have known what would happen. Both gangs were getting cocky and Mir- "

"It was me." I spoke out. I couldn't take it anymore.

"What?" Aden looked behind himself towards me, still standing in the darkness of the wall.

"Luke. Shut up." Danev said.

I shook my head, ignored him, and carried on. "I'm the reason it went how it did. I thought I could save both gangs. I tried to strike a deal with Miro and she agreed. She agreed she would leave, and the Hornets would give the Fire Nation what they knew about where the Rats were hiding in exchange for safe passage into the military district and admission into the army."

I could see the heat rising to his voice again. I could see the small steps he was taking towards me, but I carried on.

"Janick, Miro's right-hand man, didn't like this, and killed her. He led the rest of the Rats to where we were to meet with the Fire nation and get inside Citadel. They ambushed us, and everyone died. They're all dead. I'm sorry, Aden, I am." I felt tears rising to my face and tried to hold them back, but at the same time I was remembering the blank looks on Reek's, Riu's, and everyone else's face, I also was seeing myself crashing onto the metallic floor below. I was fully expecting to die then and there, and Aden was expecting the same.

Aden just stood there, then took that first huge step towards me, yelling "You killed them all!" I was picturing myself hitting the rails of the catwalks before my body smashed against the bottom of the wall when Danev grabbed Aden by the arm, stopping him in his tracks, and smashed his face against the steel door frame with his other arm, knocking Danev to the ground, unconscious.

I was on the ground of the catwalk, the echoes of Aden's face hitting the door frame still ringing through the hollow wall.

Danev turned to me. "That was really stupid, Luke."

While Danev helped me up, I heard a horn blare outside followed by "Open the gate! Reinforcements approaching!"

Danev looked at me and said "See what that is. I'll get Aden back."

I nodded my head and rushed up the ladders I had just rushed down, opening the hatch leading to the top of the wall and when I climbed up, the sky was gray. I closed the hatch below me and stood on the top of the walls looking down on the hundreds of steel gray tanks that waited outside the city. The 15th Armored Division had arrived.


	16. Chapter 15: Preparing for War

**Danev**

I had absolutely no idea what to do.

Everything was going wrong. Everything had been going wrong for the last 6 months. Hell, longer than that. The raid on the Fire Nation camp was supposed to work. I was never supposed to get captured there, but I did and so did Aden.

That didn't work, so I tried to fix it. I tried to strike a deal with the Fire Nation. Then the war against the Rats was supposed to work and we were supposed to get out alive, but we didn't. Everybody died, and it was just me, Luke, and Aden.

Aden wasn't supposed to wake up. His wounds were bad. I saw them, but he did wake up. I tried to keep him from learning what had happened, but he did find out and here I was, wondering what wound come first: Aden killing us, or Luke and I getting the hell out of here on one of those tanks. They were assigning us to different divisions. I was put in infantry along with some other people I recognized. I knew Dazni. Liked him too. He didn't mind me and Luke from the get-go. He was a good person. I looked around to see if Aden was anywhere close. Last I had seen him, I had dragged him into the medical ward, claiming he had fallen from the wall and hit his head on a catwalk. It was partially true.

"Gi Gu. Armored." Exclaimed the officer that had arrived with the 15th, prompting a series of giggles from other students who found the name rather silly. The officer wore what looked like a newer uniform. Sure, it was nice and shiny, but it seemed to offer better protection too. At least compared to what I was wearing. Luke was the only one that had been given a different uniform from the rest of us, given his abilities.

"Zihe Zutarro. Infantry." Zihe had come, despite all odds. He wore a bandage over most of his face, mostly the right side of it which, according to Zaydi, had been hit the most. I wasn't sure if Luke felt pity for him. Maybe he did. I know Luke wanted to hurt him, but I doubted this was what he had in mind. On the bright side, Zihe hadn't so much as given Luke a glance since it had happened. Bad things generally happened when you attacked a bender without being one yourself. That was something Aden didn't understand. Sure, he would have killed Luke had I not interfered, but I doubt Luke was ready, or even willing to defend himself. He was still giving himself shit over it. Aden had resurfaced all of the guilt Luke had felt from when the Hornets got killed off. He still believed it was entirely his fault.

I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him save the walk back to the military district. I brought Aden's body to the medical wing then I heard an announcement on the speakers that all graduated students were to report to the motor pool. I didn't even know we had a motor pool. And turns out for good reason. It barely qualified as one. It was just an old warehouse converted into one what looked like yesterday.

"Aden. Infantry." There was no response. I was hoping he would just skip the name. I wasn't in the mood to offer explanations. He didn't let up though. I didn't expect him to. "Aden!" he called again. "Where are you?"

I spoke up. "Injured sir!"

"Injured? Injured how?"

"Fell and hit his head."

I saw the look in Luke's eyes. He didn't hear what my excuse had been, and I was thankful he wasn't the one to spoke up. The state he was in, he might just have said something stupid enough to ruin our one chance to get out of here.

"Fine then. Luke. Armored." Luke shuffled out of where he had been standing alone, the last of the students to be called, and moved in with the rest of the kids who had been assigned to the armored division. There were more with him than with me in Infantry. In Infantry, it was mostly the older kids which made sense. The younger kids would be safer in the tanks. Or maybe not. Maybe they would just be bigger targets. I had no idea in all honesty.

"Infantry!" He bellowed again. "You will follow me outside the city walls for PT and equipment assignment. Armored! You will be demonstrated by Lieutenant Zand to board your individual tanks and you will be taken outside the city walls for practice. We march for Ba-Sing-Se in 2 days. Infantry! With me!"

 _Tomorrow? No. It had to be tomorrow. Aden would be awake by then. He'd kill Luke._ We began marching. Luke wasn't too far so I took my chance before he started his own assignment and I rushed up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder and said quietly into his ear, making sure nobody heard, "If you get far enough outside the city. If you have nobody watching, you and you're alone. Make a break for it. Don't look back. Drive your tank however far you can and get out of here."

"Are you kidding me? And leave you?"

"Yes! Aden will kill you if he wakes up. You're only way out of here alive is if you make a break for it."

He didn't say a word. I didn't know what to think. "Private First-Class Aden!" yelled my new commander. "Get in formation!"

"Please." I mouthed to Luke before I ran to where my squad was waiting for me. And then we marched. I turned back to Luke and saw him getting inside a tank of his own. _Please don't be an idiot. Please, just run._

We entered the tunnel that bisected the slums, marching straight through the slums in a steel tube. Before long, the light at the end of the tunnel appeared. The last time I had stepped outside these walls, it was to fight against the Fire Nation. Now, I was fighting for them. I might have found it funny if I hadn't been scared out of my mind.

 **Luke**

The inside of the tank was one of the hottest spaces I had ever been inside. It was cramped, uncomfortable, and pretty damn hot. I couldn't imagine wat it would be like with 3 others. I left the hatch open as he had just told us to do, but even still, I was surprised to here his voice from where I was sitting, trying to understand the controls in front of me.

"All of you, listen up!" called Lieutenant Zand from outside. "These tanks that you're being given the privilege of even occupying, are worth far more than the lot of us put together. These tanks do not exist to protect and serve you! On the contrary, you exist to protect and serve these tanks. Spirits know they're far more useful than a bunch of pre-pubescent children." _Pre-pubescent? I'm 12. At least, I think I am._

"First off!" he continued. "To start your tanks, there is a small chord you will find near your seats. Your tank is being run on petroleum rather than coal. It is cleaner and stronger. You must yank on this chord to begin siphoning the oil to the engine. When I say go, you wi-"

He was interrupted by the sound of some kid not paying attention and starting the engine on his own tank. I decided to turn around in my seat and crawl out of it to poke my head out the hatch and see just how screwed this poor kid was.

Lieutenant Zand went right up to his tank, poked his head into the hatch, and his screams echoed throughout the tank until they came back out in a somewhat humorous, but uninterpretable mumble. I couldn't hear a word of it, but considering it was a minute until he came out, forcing me to retreat back to my seat in silence, I imagine it was more than sufficient to get the class in line.

"Let me repeat myself! When I say 'go', you will start your engines. Not a minute earlier and not a minute later! Now start your engines in 3…2…1…go!"

The sound of engines starting throughout the motor pool was something of a shock when it was 10 tanks at the same time. I was amazed I could hear him despite being in the tanks. Now, I was simply dumbfounded I could hear him over the sound of the engines. I pitied his lungs, his throat, and pretty much every organ in his body. The tank didn't start right away for me. It took a third tug to get the engine started and when it did, the world around me began to shake as though I giant had grabbed me and was trying to mush my insides.

"You will find 2 pedals near where your legs are. The left is for stopping. The right is for accelerating. That means going. The wheel directly in front of you is to steer. To change the direction you are going. If you want to go left, turn the wheel left. If you want to go right, turn the wheel right. When I say 'go', turn your wheels towards the tunnel and accelerate. Go until you drive out of the city and go far enough away to make room for the others, then stop. Ready? GO!"

I wasn't the first to go, or the second. Some people were definitely more enthusiastic as I was, but soon enough, I found an opening, and put my foot on the pedal. When I did, the world moved around me. I sure as hell was breaking any records of speed, but from where I was, I felt like I was the fastest thing in the universe. I turned my wheel towards the black tunnel that went straight through the slums and pushed harder on the pedal. From the force alone, the hatch above me slammed shut, causing my heart to jump from what I thought might had been something wrong with the tank.

Now, my hands were shaking on the wheel, but nonetheless, I managed to turn into the tunnel and was engulfed in darkness with the only light being a small circle in front of me. Then it struck me. I had never been outside before. I had seen the outside, but I had never been there. I had never looked at the walls, thinking of them as behind me. I had never felt grass beneath my feet. This was it. I was finally seeing the outside.

The circle of light grew closer, and closer, and finally, I was through it. I was outside. I couldn't see much from where I sat in the tank, looking through a narrow slit. Now, I was seeing what I had seen hundreds of times before atop the wall during patrols, but now, directly in front of me, not looking from above.

I saw where the rest of the tanks were stopping and with my left foot, I searched for the other pedal, stepping on it. The tank screeched and jerked but persisted until I realized I still had the right pedal pressed to the metal and let it go. The tank jerked to a halt, and I breathed. My body, especially my hands, were still shaking. My breaths quivered, but once I felt my heart slow back down to normal levels, I knew what to do. I left my seat, crawling behind it to the gunner's seat and opened the hatch, slamming it open and I poked my body outside, looking at the city of Citadel. A city I had never seen before save from the inside. Those gray steel walls stood ominously as equally ominous gray and steel machines drove out from a small black hole standing out against the wall. _I'm outside. I'm really outside._

I turned my body around, looking at the other tanks at my side and at the forest in front of my tank. The air was clean, not polluted by the shit and piss of the slums or by the smog of the military district, but actually clean. The funny thing was, I was just assuming this was what clean was. I had never had clean air before. This was definitely a first time for me in terms of breathable air. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, I wanted to do anything that would get as much air in my lungs as possible before I went back inside those walls.

Finally, the Lieutenant's tank arrived, easily identifiable by its red and gold markings. A nice humble tank for an equally nice and humble man.

"I must say I'm impressed! None of you crashed into or killed one another. Let's see if you can keep it up. There's a camp due northwest where the 15th armored is stationed. It's where our new infantry is training. You will follow my lead and we will drive there. Once we're there, we will divide into our tank crews. You will be permitted to choose your tank crews, but I will divide you myself if you prove to be too much of a bother. Now, turn your tanks around and follow me!"

And so we went. The moment that his tank took off, we followed. And I don't think any of us wanted to stop.

 **Zar'un**

"The kids are assimilating well." Spoke Major General Zahckrael. "Infantry PT is going well, and I've gotten a hawk that told me that Zand has arrived with all of his troops to our campsite. We're retrofitting the tanks and assigning tank crews.

It's not enough men." I responded. "Only 18. And kids too. I still don't get why you bothered coming here for them. It won't do much good.

"There's another reason we haven't told you yet for fear of one of our hawks getting intercepted. We're also to meet here with the 22nd infantry. I'm well aware they used to run supplies to Citadel, but now with the front extending further to Ba-Sing-Se, this site should be safe enough for convoys to move freely. And given the humiliation the 22nd faced at the hands of a few gang members last year, I'm sure it'll be good for them to go back to real combat. Maybe then they'll remember how to fight like soldiers and not drunken idiots."

"So you're less so here for the kids, and more-so here for a rendezvous with the real reinforcements."

"I wouldn't put it like that. The men, well, boys you've provided us with will prove more than helpful for the war effort, but you're right. 18 children are not enough to do any good. If we can assimilate the 22nd into the 15th armored, a fully operational 5th corps might just be enough to shift the tide of the war."

"5th corps?"

"Well. Our 2 divisions will be combining. That's too many men for a single division. We'll be reformed into the 5th corps."

"And I assume the change in status comes along with a promotion for whoever's in charge. Lieutenant General is the next step I believe?"

"It is."

"Well. I suppose congratulations are in order." _He's lying to me. It wasn't to risky to send a hawk to me. He sent a hawk to the 22_ _nd_ _and they're even closer to Ba-Sing-Se. I wasn't sure if the slight was intentional or not, but I wouldn't have him use my city to launch a new offensive only to leave Citadel in the dust to die without any aid._ I spoke up. "Citadel would be glad to accommodate the 22nd as well. They are due to arrive…"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow. And you're leaving with my students and my garrison. I admit, I'll feel rather defenseless here all alone."

"You still have your shield."

 _The slums._ "I've heard the reports from Ba-Sing-Se. Maybe the Earth Kingdom isn't as morally superior as we'd expected. Riot breaking, executions, brain washing?"

"The latter of which is just rumors. We have no evidence, but when we do take the city, we will investigate all these rumors down to their roots. And then, you'll have all the men you'll need."

"And when will that be? A week from now? A month? A year? 10? You're _5_ _th_ _corps_ will be attacking Ba-Sing-Se from the East. The North front is still abandoned since the Water Tribe attack. It hasn't been reinforced in months. What's to stop the Earth Kingdom from breaking out from the north, circling your men, and taking Citadel. You'll be trapped and tens of thousands will die. Is that what we want?"

"What are you asking for?" _So no more subtlety. Good._

"I want 500 men to remain in the city. I want new defensive weapons. Catapults, trebuchets, cannons. However many you can spare. It's a long way to Ba-Sing-Se and you'll speed up your journey significantly by leaving some of your equipment with me. Citadel will stand strong as a defensive foundation to your offensive. Ba-Sing-Se will fall, and the Fire Nation will emerge victorious."

Zahckrael smiled. "And the Fire Nation will emerge victorious." He echoed, imagining the medals he'd win from his victory. Me. I imagined something else. I imagined a city 20 times the size of Citadel. One with impenetrable walls and a beacon of power. I imagined who would run that city after successfully fostering an invasion against said city from one of his own. That's what I imagined. My imagination was less-vivid than his however as it took him a while to respond.

"Yes." He said. "I accept. You'll have your men and two days from now, we'll be out of your hair. I'll have my captains pick out your garrison right now and we'll gather your equipment."

 _The worst men and the worst equipment I imagined. I didn't bother me. I've seen men like Zahckrael before. His offensive will fail. He'll die, hopefully before all of his men do, and I'll be ready to recover from his failure, hopefully after he put a nice hole or two in the wall._

 **Luke**

I never understood the analogy of getting picked last for sports until now, but strangely, it wasn't me experiencing this. On the contrary, it was the other way around. I was the first pick for everybody. I was the firebender. I was the only person that would make a tank crew complete. It was entertaining to see the extent to which people attempted to have me tag along. They offered to be nice, they offered bribes from their rich parents, they offered anything. In the end, I chose. I chose the two who hadn't come to talk to me: Gi Gu, and Gan Hidu.

I regretted it not an hour later.

We were sent off individually to test all the features of the tanks. We were given hastily copied tank manuals where half the instructions were illegible. We couldn't tell what we were doing half the time.

Eventually, it came down to pressing buttons and seeing what they did. And that was my day.

"It says something about a grappling hook, here." Said Gan.

"Let me see." Replied Gi. "No. Wait. That says hook?

"What does it say to press?!" I called from where I was sitting, suffering from heat exhaustion, inside the tank.

Gan responded. "There should be a crank to the left of the pilot's seat. See it?!"

I saw it. "Yeah!"

"There's a lever next to it. Make sure the crank is pulled back to completion, then pull the lever!"

I tested the crank. It didn't go any further to the left, so I gave the lever a pull and I felt the tank give a violent shake. I barely had time to look out the window and see the massive chain and hook that had shot out from the vehicle. It looked over 50 meters long.

My heart in my chest was still in pain from the shock that the firing had given me, but the cheering from my crew outside helped to calm me down. I poked my head out and saw them running towards the hook with the measuring tape to see if it shot as far as it was supposed to.

Soon enough, they came back to tell me it was al good and flipped to the next page. Gan recited what came next. "It says that by jerking the lever forward, you can cut the chain and eject what's left of it. You have one more hook that you can use. So the tank is loaded with two."

"Where do they store it?" asked Gi.

"I don't know. Maybe under us? Anyway, since we're not getting rid of it, we should take it back in. We need to use the crank and crank it to the left to draw in the chain and hook."

I did so, and it worked to perfection. We tested the cockpit rotation system which made me want to puke. We tested the wheel spikes, the driving modes, all of it. It ended with a final test of the grappling hook. And as they were away, testing the distance one last time, I looked at that lever again and the thought came over me. I could just sever it. Sever the connection to the chain and run. I was in the tank. They weren't. They couldn't catch me. I could drive to Ba-Sing-Se and I could make it. It would take Gan and Gi at least an hour to get back to camp. By then, I could be over 30 miles from the city. I could go north and throw them off my trail. I could go anywhere.

Then I remembered Danev, and even Aden. The latter had tried to kill me, but I couldn't run. Not like this. I couldn't leave Danev after all he'd done for me and I couldn't leave Aden after all I'd done to him. I forced my hand to leave the lever and I tried to put on as best a smile as I could as I saw Gan and Gi running back. Maybe the Fire Nation wasn't my family, but Danev and Aden were. I wasn't leaving the only family I had left.


	17. Chapter 16: Departure

**Danev**

Where normally the mess hall was an empty cell of steel save the rare occupied seat, it was packed to the brim today. While the whole of the 15th broke fast outside the walls, General Zahckrael's personal guard ate with us. The room was completely filled. We ate in uniform alongside actual soldiers, adults, twice if not thrice our ages. For once, the other students, well, ex-students, sat side by side, no longer looking down on one another, but seeking each other for support. It was the first-time other kids our age actually sat down with Luke and me. Not that it mattered to us, we had more on our mind.

We were biding our time at this point, waiting for the 2nd to arrive. None of us had heard much about them save that we would be going to Ba-Sing-Se with them. The sooner they arrived, the sooner the 5th Corps was formed, and we could leave for the city. Whether Aden came with us or not was still in the air. Zaydi had told me this morning that he would be released from the infirmary today, suited up, prepped for combat, and he would deploy with us tomorrow. Whether Aden decided to go through with it was another thing. Neither Luke nor I would be surprised if he ran off. Or did something worse for that matter.

That was the real reason we were ready to get out of this city as quickly as possible. The sooner Aden got out, the longer Luke and I would have to be looking over our shoulders. Luke's small-talk cut me out of my trance.

"I feel bad for the cooks."

"What?"

"I feel bad for 'em. They're used to making food for no more than 20 at a time. There's over 100 in here now."

"Zahckrael's got a big personal guard."

"You'd think he was paranoid with the company he keeps."

"Most paranoid people are the ones with the most to hide."

"You think he's hiding something?"

"You don't get that far up in the military honestly."

"Even the Dragon of the West?"

"Probably."

"I don't know. He seems like a good guy."

"The Dragon or the General?"

"Dragon."

"Of course he seems nice. History books aren't going to go around slandering him. Not unless he turns traitor or failure. Then every victory will become a deception and every minor victory a catastrophic failure."

Luke didn't respond. He just gave me a curious look in the eyes across the table that I only noticed as I bent over to spoon some more soup into my mouth. "What?" I asked before sucking on the spoon to get the warm food down.

"You okay?" he asked, a smiling growing on his face. "You only talk all philosophical and shit when something's bothering you."

"Nothing's bothering me." I realized my actions had betrayed my words when I heard the sound of me slamming my hand on the metal table, attracting the gazes of everyone else at the table.

I pushed the bowl out away from me, sliding it across the table. "I'm not hungry anyway."

I stood up and left the cafeteria, not bothering to look behind me. I had almost made it to an intersection in the hallway when Luke caught up to me, slowing down to try to get some words in with me.

"Danev" he called. "Dude. You alright?"

I kept walking, until he grabbed me by the arm, somehow managing to hold me at bay for a good second until I could force my arm away from his. The fact that he had managed to actually stop someone 2 years his senior that easily surprised me. Considering he could also control fire, I decided it would be the best to talk now on my terms. So I vented.

"No. I'm not alright. For one, Aden, who now knows that you're pretty much the reason the Hornets are dead because you couldn't shut your damn mouth, is more pissed than ever. I'm not sure if you've seen Aden when he's legitimately pissed off, but it's not good. He gets out of the med-ward today and don't doubt that he's going to look at us for the nearest source of taking out his anger. Next to that, we're being deployed to a damn warzone tomorrow morning and I'm not liking our odds of survival. Should I keep going?"

"No. Shut up."

"What."

Luke motioned his head to look behind me, so I turned. If the regiment of soldiers and their commander wasn't enough to give it away, the banner they carried was. The 22nd Infantry. We moved out of the way to let them pass. And now, we were being deployed even sooner than originally planned. There was no easy way out of this. In one way, Aden finds some way to kill us. In the second, the Earth Kingdom does it for him. In the third, I find some way to kill Aden before he kills Luke for me and if I get caught, which I will, I get court martialed and executed, but maybe Luke lives long enough to die on an Earth Kingdom spear.

We put our backs against the wall, allowing the small group of soldiers to pass by. Something seemed familiar about these soldiers. About the insignias on their armor. Then I saw a face I remembered. A face I remember belonging to a man who had nearly killed me. I knew where I remembered these soldiers from.

"Shit." I couldn't stop myself from murmuring to myself. "Fuck."

"What's wrong?" Luke asked.

I didn't respond. They couldn't recognize me, right? I was just a random street kid they beat the shit out of. Nobody important. But still. "Damnit."

"What?"

The soldiers had passed, but I grabbed Luke by the forearm and led him further down the hall away from the passing soldiers and when we were clear, I spoke. "Those are the soldiers we faced when I was raiding the Fire Nation camp with Aden and the others."

Luke looked down the hall at the passing soldiers as though he were expecting to recognize one of the men he had never faced before. "You serious?"

"Yeah."

"Is this bad?"

"Is this another thing to tip Aden over the edge you mean? They killed his best friend, so I'd say yes."

"Well shit. What do we do?"

" **You** do nothing. **I** go talk to Aden while he's still fucking infirm and make sure he does nothing stupid."

"You didn't cripple him, Aden. He could choke you to death if he so desired."

"I'm going to make sure he doesn't desire that. I'm going to make him an offer."

"What offer?"

"I'll tell you if it works."

I still had no idea what I was going to say. I didn't know then and I still didn't know when I saw Zaydi talking to one of the doctors in the medical wing. Her smile upon seeing me faded away soon after seeing the look of seriousness on my face. She knew this wasn't a courtesy visit. "He's inside." She said, knowing why I was here.

I nodded and gave her a wane smile before passing her and going to the area where I knew Aden was. I got the sheet and took a deep breath before sliding it open. He hadn't been sleeping. He shot straight up, rocking the bed he was lying in, a thick white bandage covering the side of his head where I had thrown him against the wall. The look on his face told me there was no amnesia. _Unfortunate._

Aden spoke first. "I can get out of this bed and choke you to death right fucking now."

"That's funny. Luke said the exact same thing."

"I can choke him to death too. Hell, he's small enough. I bet I could break his neck with my hand."

"Then why are you still lying in bed."

"Because I've known you for 5 damn years in the Hornets together and I would be remiss if I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself before I fucking killed you."

"And what good would that do?"

"What? Killing you? It would take a damn load off my chest. I know that much."

"Aden, the Hornets died because we fucked up. It wasn't anybody's fault. Nobody on our side at least. If you want to blame someone, blame Janick, and he's dead. Died on Luke's sword."

"Luke actually killed that son of a bitch?"

 _Killing was a strong word. Janick more so literally fell on Luke's sword than anything else._

"He did. I know you blame him for making a deal with the Rats, but it was a solid fucking plan. It would have worked too if Janick hadn't killed Miro. We've all made mistakes, Aden. I made a mistake when we went for that Raid on the Fire Nation camp. We should have stuck together. I shouldn't have sent you and Meeko to distract the soldiers."

"No. You shouldn't have. Is it true they're in Citadel?"

"Who?"

"The fucking 22nd. The ones who killed Meeko. Are they really here?"

I sighed. I didn't want to think where he was going with this. "Good. Get out."

"Aden. Please. Be smart about this. You don't even know who did it."

"You weren't there. You have no fucking idea what I saw. I saw his face as he looked me in the eyes while he shoved his sword in Meeko's heart. I remember his face."

"Aden. They'll kill you."

"Don't sound so fucking heartbroken. Like you actually give two shits about me."

"I do."

"If you did, you wouldn't have told me my family was alive while they were all rotting on some stupid street in the middle of the slums. Just go."

"Look. You have two options. You can suck it up and go to Ba-Sing-Se with us, or you can just leave. Go back to the slums. You'll be hunted, but you're free to do that. But you do not come near Luke or me, okay?"

"I said fucking go!"

There was nothing more I could say. I saw that much. I stood up and left. There was nothing more for me to do.

I made my way outside of the medical ward, shut the door behind me and leaned against the wall next to the door, sliding down the ground, grasping my head with my hands, having no idea what the hell I was doing.

It wasn't long until I saw Zaydi open the door next to me and sit down on the ground next to me. "Didn't go well?" she asked.

I shook my head. "He's going to get himself killed."

"I can't keep him in there." She said before I could even ask. "The warden says he has to be released to report for duty tomorrow morning."

"Warden?"

"Zar'un's not a captain anymore. Has a new title now."

"More befitting of what he actually does by the looks of it."

"I guess so." She turned to face me. "I'm going to miss you."

"Going to miss you too, I imagine a girl like you won't be lonely for too long here, though."

"You kidding me? You're the closest person to me in age in this damn city. It's gonna be hell."

"So they're not deploying you, I imagine. I'm surprised. You're young. I figured the Fire Nation was into that kinda thing."

"I'm to replace the doc."

"Doc's being deployed?"

She nodded her head. "He was made a medic by the 22nd just an hour ago."

"Hell. You gonna be okay?"

"I don't really have a choice."

"You'll do great. You're good at this kind of thing."

She chuckled. "I hardly know anything. I'm just hoping one you lot leave, there'll be a lot less beatings and deaths."

I chuckled with her. "I would imagine so. You know how us slum kids are."

She smiled at me. "I do. We still on for tonight?"

"Yeah. I have PT, but after that, I'm all yours."

"Good." She gave me a peck on the cheek and rose to return to her duty. "There'll be more waiting for you tonight."

And with that, she re-entered the medical ward, to return to her duties. I got up and didn't bother waiting for the messengers to hunt me down. I smoothed out my uniform and started for the yard. It was going to be a busy day.

And so 12 hours later, I found myself knocking on the door to Zaydi's room to have her open it to me only a few seconds later. I was still sweating from the day, but that didn't dissuade her. She grabbed me by the uniform and pulled me into her room. Everything after that was more or less a bliss.

 **Luke**

I had already changed clothes from PT. I didn't bother washing them. I was sure I would just end up sweating even more tomorrow. It was hot as hell in those tanks and the weather was starting to get warm again. Damn shame too. I liked the cold.

I was supposed to be in my quarters, well, Danev's quarters where I was bunking with him, but he was nowhere around. I had snuck to the library and was going through the journal, jut one last time. Thought maybe it would tell me what to expect.

It seemed every time I read, there were new pages I hadn't seen before. It was weird, but I read them all the same. Just more of the same. Fire Nation war crimes. The most talked about being the Air Nomad Genocide. I've been on the streets for 11 years and I've heard just as many tellings of the event. I've heard of heroic battles between the brave Fire Benders and the anarchist Air Nation army and of horrible massacres. This was just more of the same.

I held the book in my right hand, using my left to create a flame small enough to read and the paper appeared to glow red as though it were bleeding. It provided an eerie aesthetic while I read about how this monk had infiltrated the garrison here. Apparently, it was 10 from the dates he used. I must've been two. He got away with it for over 8 years before he was found.

I read about the people he was made to kill and the atrocities he was forced to commit. For somebody who had seen so much war, this monk Gyani seemed to have no idea what war was like. Must've just been Air Nomad mentality, but I know enough about war to know that things weren't exactly nice.

I found myself wondering what would happen with me. If I would be made to do the same. Kill people I didn't want to. Burn farms, villages, etc. Probably. Maybe not right away, but eventually. Assuming I didn't die, that's sure what my future looked like in the days to come.

I closed the book when I heard a night patrol approaching in the walls. I set the book back in the hollow between metal plates where I found it and pushed the bookshelf back over the hollow. The noise was louder than I had expected, and I heard the pace of the guards quicken. I ran through the other exit and I was away.

Soon enough. I was back in Danev's room, with him nowhere to be found. I wasn't sleeping on the floor tonight. I crawled into his bed and pulled the sheet over me. That night, I didn't dream. And I was glad for it. I would need my energy for tomorrow.

 **Aden**

I had missed PT with the 15th. Didn't really bother me. I couldn't say I was planning on going. I found the one I was looking for. The one who killed Meeko. I was discharged from the medical ward at noon. For 10 hours, I was digging up everything I could until finally, I got his name. Zanech. I knew where he was going to be tonight, so I waited for him to pass. I waited in the hallway, waiting for him to pass. I kept the knife tucked between my uniform greaves and my shirt, waiting. Just waiting.

"Hey kid!" I heard a voice call from above me followed by a kick in the side. "You dead?"

I shook awake and stumbled to my feet, making sure the knife was still secure. I got up, ready to start running until I saw him. The one who had kicked me awake. It was him, surrounded by two others I didn't recognize.

"Holy shit." Zanech said. "It's you."

"You know this kid?" one of his friends asked.

"Hell yes I know him." He chuckled. "I almost killed him."

"You didn't." I responded.

"Clearly. Here you are."

He knew what he did. He was waiting to see if I would act. He wasn't far in front of me. I could reach him if I was quick enough to grab the dagger. The two with him, though. I didn't think I could outplay them both. When he saw I was taking to long to reply, he filled in the gap of silence.

"Can't say the same for you friend though."

My fists clenched. He noticed.

"What was his name? I remember you screaming it when I put my sword in his stomach. You know, when they told me that Zar'un had recruited some kids from the slums, I never fucking expected you to be among them, but seriously. What was his name."

"His name was Meeko." I growled.

"Right. That's it. Shame about him, truly. Seemed a nice kid, nicer than you, that is. He went down with quite the fight, but not you. All you took was one hit to the head and you were down for the count."

"Fuck you."

"I'll pass. No. Meeko. He fought. Gave me a nice scratch to remember him by." He lifted his shirt to show a scar in his side made by a small knife. A knife Meeko would never stop bragging bout. I found myself reaching for my own. He was right in front of me. I could reach him.

"But hey. He's dead. And you're not, so there's that. Maybe he was weaker than you. So what can I say but welcome you to the Fire Nation. I think you're going to love it here. I doubt a slum shit like you is acquainted with civilized life, but one of these days we could-"

He stepped back to soon, but it was too late for me to stop. I pulled the knife from where I kept it and lept forward. Where I should have cut his throat, I aimed to high and slashed him across the brow, barely missing his eye.

He stumbled back and felt his brow to feel the blood that had been drawn. He chuckled. That was stupid.

I missed once, but I was determined. I was going to kill him. I lept forward again but felt myself be shoved to the ground from the side. The knife fell from my hands and I landed on the steel ground, clambering to get back up. I felt a kick at my side and was knocked to the ground again.

Then his annoying fucking voice came back to the forefront of my head. "You should really stay down. This'll only get worse for you."

I turned around from where I was on the ground and saw that he had picked up my knife. That was my knife. Meeko gave it to me when I joined the Hornets, and I was getting it back. Then, I would use it to kill this asshole.

I rushed to the ground, positioning myself to tackle him. I sent him back 2 feet, but it wasn't enough. He grabbed me and threw me off of him, hitting me across the face with a gauntleted hand, knocking em to the ground once more."

"I said. Stay. Down!"

I wasn't going to listen. I stood up. Again, but was knocked to the ground just as quickly. I looked up, and saw Zanech stow the knife, my knife in his belt. _No. That's mine._ I attempted to rise once more, but felt another hand knock the vision out of me and send me to the ground against the wall. My vison came back as a haze, but it didn't last. I didn't even feel it as they dragged me back, so I was facing them and as their fists made their way onto my face. I wasn't even there. I was just watching. I was just watching a stupid kid, sick with revenge, getting what he had asked for. I didn't know whether to feel bad for him or not. He deserved it, did he not? He asked for this, but then again, he was just a kid. A stupid kid, but even that was reason enough to die. When you're stupid, you die. It was as simple as that. And Aden, he was an idiot.

 **Luke**

I felt the tank rumbling beneath me as I checked some of the basic gauges to make sure they were all looking good. I stepped back out and gave a thumbs up to Gan and Gi-Gu who approached to take their seats in the tank. I was a colder morning today. It would help with the march. We were handed our new patches today. The 5th Corps. Our patch was the image of a blazing tank riding into battle atop the corpses of fallen Earth Benders. It's not what I would have chosen, but for the most part, it would do.

I was preparing to get in the tank myself when I saw Danev approach from behind me. I greeted him with a head nod and said "You weren't in your quarters last night. Not very characteristic of a senior officer, private first class Danev."

"Apologies, Private." He said in a mocking tone. "Had some personal matters to deal with."

 _Personal matters, huh?_ "You say goodbye to Zaydi?"

He grinned. _Of course._ "Well." I said. "I hope the memory lasts on the way to Ba-Sing-Se. I heard it's going to be a long march. At least I'll be sitting. You my friend, are walking."

He shrugged, still smiling. I'm sure I'll be fine.

The commander started shouting out names, getting replies that were due, all until he got to the name before mines, Aden. There was no response.

I turned to Danev. "What were the options you gave him?"

"I said he could suck it up and come with us or go back to the slums."

"So you think he took the latter?"

"It sure looks that way."

The commander turned to one of the squires next to him and heard him whisper "Go find him." The boy ran off.

"The rest of you. Get in formation or get in your tanks. We leave now. The latecomer can catch up if he doesn't want to be court martialed."

Danev and I gave each other a half hug followed by a pat on the back and went our separate ways. I got into my gunner's seat on the tank, overhearing Gi Gu and Gan making the final checks on the tank. We started up the tanks and I closed the hatch above me, lowering my seat to keep me at eye level with the opening slit for me to look and shoot through. I got into a comfortable position and readied myself for the drive ahead. I heard the tanks start in unison and felt it move beneath me. We had only had some practice where we did our separate roles. Gan was the driver, Gi Gu the copilot, and me the gunner. It wasn't the worst tank crew, I'd say that. I reached into the small pack I was allowed to take with me and took out a small flask of water to take a drink out of. I would get some more later when we passed the next river.

I realized then I had forgot the journal. "Damn." I murmured to myself. I was planning on reading that on the way to Ba-Sing-Se. Oh well.

The tanks moved as a unit and I saw the tunnel growing ahead of us. We were near the front of the formation, but suddenly, everything stopped.

"The hell?" Gan called from his seat. "Luke!" he called. "What's going on?"

I opened my hatch and raised my seat to get a look. I saw two Fire Nation guards carrying something between them, but the view was blocked by one of the tanks. I unbuckled the belt holding me in place and leaned out of the tank to get a better look. They were passing through the tunnel, holding what looked like somebody between them. It was a corpse, muddied and bloodied. The face was practically beat to a pulp, but he was wearing a Fire Nation uniform, but something about him looked familiar. Was it?

I hopped out of the tank and ignored the yelling behind me coming from Gan and Gi Gu both. I approached the two guards who seemed surprised by the reality of a uniformed 12-year-old approaching them to investigate a mangled body.

"Who is that?" I asked but got no answer. "Who is it?!"

The soldiers set his body on the ground and the one closest to me said "We found him outside the outer wall. It looks like he fell from the wall. Do you recognize him?"

I did. Even past the mess that was his face, I could recognize him. When we were on the outer wall together and he learned what I had done, it was me I had expected to go over the edge, not him, but here he was. Aden. And he was dead.

"Kid." The guard asked again. "You recognize him?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah." I croaked. I do.

The guard looked as though he were about to say something, maybe apologize, but the yelling from Lieutenant Zand called me back to my tank. I crawled up the fuselage and sat myself in the gunner's seat and buckled in as I watched the guards carry the body away, my head spinning.

"Luke!" called Gan as I closed the hatch overhead and lowered my seat. "The fuck was that?! Who was he?!"

I didn't feel like answering. A wiped a tear I had reserved for the next Hornet to die from my cheek and settled into my seat, closing my eyes. Al of a sudden, I was tired again, and I just wanted to sleep. "Just drive." I said. And so we did. I didn't even see as we exited the city, I just saw the change in light coming through the gunner slit in front of me and I knew I was gone from Citadel forever. It wasn't the happy day I had imagined it to be. I was leaving a dead friend behind. I had done just that when I left the slums, and now, I was doing the exact same thing all over again.

I don't even think I managed to hide my crying.

 **Zar'un**

The 5th Corps was gone. I had my men, my equipment, and the next batch of recruits was training. Industry had gone up and the parents of the new recruits had stopped complaining. There was no reason left to complain. Their kids were gone. The arguing as over. Now, there was one final matter.

They said two guards had found the book last night. I didn't believe it at first, but there it was, right in front of me. I dismissed the guards in my office, so it was just me and Zarrow, the man I had put in charge of collecting all evidence left by Gyani.

"Zarrow." I said. "Do you still have the rest?"

"The ones you told me to burn?"

"Yes."

"Of course."

"Bring them to me please."

He left.

I stood up from my chair and closed the blinds to the window, darkening the room. I pulled I match from my drawer and lit the candle I kept on my desk. It hadn't burned too low and it still had some use left. It would serve. I sat back down, flipping through the pages of the journal, scolding myself for taking this long to find it.

Soon enough, Zarrow came into the room with the box of pages we had found over the last year. It was all here.

"Leave me." I said. And like the dutiful soldier he was, he left.

I opened the small box containing the rest of the ripped-out pages and brought them to the binding. As the pages approached the near empty journal, what felt like a magnetic attraction grew between the two. I brought the pages to the binding and shut the book. When I opened it again, the pages were secured.

I had noticed it when I first tried to burn the pages. The red markings that appeared in proximity to fire. I brought the book over the candle, but it was still illegible. As I expected. I grabbed the last page. The one we had just found. The one that had supposedly just been written.

 _Trust Raava._

 _Watch out for Vaatu._

I brought the page to the front of the journal and it locked into place. Once more. I held it over the fire and the red markings appeared, illegible at first, but flowing like blood throughout the pages. With my left hand, I held the book over the candle and with my right, I copied the characters that appeared, paying no attention to what they said, but merely what they looked like.

I copied them down onto a loose piece of paper in front of me as the blood like redness of the paper flowed into legible characters.

I copied it down, character after character until finally, the pages went blank, and the book caught aflame. Instinctively, I let it go and the book fell the ground, the Fire extinguished.

I reached carefully down to the book and placed it back atop my desk, the short-lived fire completely gone, my candle extinguished as well.

After almost 2 years of this bullshit, it was almost finally over. For once, I was relieved. I knew there was something hidden behind it all. I remembered the paper that I had just wrote and my excitement grew even more. I didn't bother opening the blinds. I read the parchment in the dark. The missing piece. The missing page I never found.

 _Monk Gyani, 86 years after the Genocide._

 _We've been awake for 5 weeks now. His eyes were still close last I saw him. I left him with an orphanage, but they never last. Soon he will be on his own. He's just a child, but he's all we have left. I couldn't leave him the others. He's been asleep too long and the war's been taking too many lives. He's needed. He needs to survive, but I have to keep an eye on him. This isn't about me anymore. We can't go to Ba-Sing-Se or anywhere else for that matter. Citadel is our safest best. I can keep an eye on him while I serve in the army. I can dig up what I can, but that's not my real purpose. I need to keep him safe. I've done what I can this far. The spirits helped me erase his memory, but it may not last forever. If this is ever found, then the Spirits have given you this journal. I am most likely dead, but that does not need be the case for the other. I put him in the slums of Citadel at the age of 2. He is brown of hair and gray of eye. He will not remember his birth name, but I have given him a new one. His name is Luke and he is the last hope for the Air Nation._

No.

No.

I bolted up from my chair, knocking it to the ground and rushed to my window. I yanked the blinds open to see the wave of steel tanks driving away.

"NOO!" I yelled.

Zarrow busted into the room. "Sir. Is everything alright."

"Send the hawks to General Iroh, right now. Tell him that there's a traitor arriving with the 15th and to contact me right away! Send the hawks now!"

"Ho-. How many, sir?"

"All of them."

 **Luke**

I had opened the hatch to get a feel for the breeze. We were heading west, the sun behind us. I saw the hawks flying above us, not a care in the world. I imagine there were on their way to General Iroh to tell him we were coming.

I was done crying for Aden. I had had enough time for that. I was sitting in my seat, facing behind us. Citadel, tens of miles behind us, looked strangely beautiful. Out of place, but still beautiful. The sun rose above its walls, making the city look pitch black against us.

In a way, I was sad to be leaving. That's where I had spent my life. I grew up in that city since before I knew how to talk. I had memories there, good and bad, but in the end, after everything, I was glad to leave the pain and suffering behind. I didn't know what lay ahead, but I pictured nothing worse than what I had already gone through. So despite everything I had been through in the last few hours, I smiled, and I let the wind blow past me. I was blowing west, and so were we.

Was I scared? Yes. I was going to war, but I had trained for war. Not what I was taught in the Citadel school no. I had learned about war, and more importantly, survival for my entire life. Whatever came next, I felt ready.


	18. Chapter 17: The Journey

**Luke**

"Halt! Halt!" called Lieutenant Zand from his command vehicle, a heavily modified tank lined with not just extra steel plate, but golden rims and patterns imitating that of an exhaling dragon, spouting flames at the enemy.

If his shouting wasn't enough to wake me, then it was the sudden jerk of the tank that did, knocking my head against the side of the gunner's dome. I could hardly hear Gan's apology to me as I clutched the side of my head where I had hit it.

My head still pounding, I peeked at the evening sky ahead of me. We had been driving for 6 days now according to the scratches I had decided to start making on the interior of my gunner's dome. 6 nice white little sticks where I had scraped the paint off to indicate the number of days I had been on the road.

We would have been travelling a lot faster if it wasn't for the 22nd infantry, or, should I say, the infantry portion of the 5th Corps. The 15th armored had had armored transports to carry what little infantry divisions we had, but the 22nd hadn't been equipped the same way. They were forced to march almost constantly just to keep up with us. I almost pitied them.

Ahead of me, the sky was overcast, an indicator of the ending winter and the coming spring. It had been a short winter. There was barely any snow to be had in Citadel, but it was probably for the best. I doubted any of it would still have been white by the time it reached even the tallest building considering the concentration of industry in Citadel.

Citadel. A part of me missed it, but the bigger part of myself was overjoyed to put it behind me. That city held nothing but pain and shitty memories for me. It was where nearly everybody I had ever known and loved had died. The only person left from my life now was Danev. He was the only family I had left.

I spotted Zand easily enough by the "humble" tank, calling out our next orders. "We're stopping here. Keep tanks stationed at coordinates S10, I9. Camp will be set up at coordinates S9, I9. The infantry division will be arriving at 2200 so you'll be setting up camp alone, again. Move out!

"Luke!" Gi Gu called from the cockpit. "Mind getting out and staking camp for us? Get us a spot near the river if you can."

"Sure." I replied. "No problem."

I raised above me to unlatch the lock to the hatch and raised it, letting a welcome breeze of cool air flow into the tank. I grabbed my small supply pack I kept under my seat and threw it out ahead me, unafraid of breaking the few possessions I had brought from Citadel. I crawled out after it, retrieving my bad from where it was lying on the hull, and closed the hatch behind me. I walked around the tank to the rear where our personal supplies were being kept and grabbed the tent, leaving the sleeping bags behind, trusting them to have a better idea where they wanted to sleep. It would be getting dark soon considering I could see the soon below the line of grey clouds. It would be a good idea to get camp set up as quickly as possible. _I hope we have a tarp._ I looked through the back of the storage compartment, and sure enough, found the nice blood red tarp with a large black blot I imagined would be a Fire Nation emblem once unfolded. I wiped some of the dust off of the tarp before closing the storage compartment, moving up to where the driver's seat would be, and knocked on the side of the tank twice, signaling they were good to go.

More or less, I got the luck of the draw being as small as I was. I got to ride around in a tank all day instead of marching unimaginable distances. I normally got first choosing on where I wanted to camp considering barely any ground was taken, and I was probably the safest person in this entire Corps. I was small and heavily armored. What more could I have asked for?

I saw the river Gi Gu was referring to. _So we finally reached the end of it._ We had been following the river that flowed south of Citadel for the last week, never reaching the end of it. I guess we had finally found it. I walked, weighed down by both my ill-fitting armor and the luggage I was carrying to a nice elevation in the ground no more than 200 feet from the lake. _Any closer and I might have to worry about flooding if it starts to storm._

I planted the 4 stakes in the ground first and set up the foundations around which the tent would be wrapped. I started unfolding the cloth that I hoped the others would help me to wrap around the foundations.

Soon enough, other tank crews started moving in, setting up their own tanks. _We had a good spot. Not too far and not too close to the lake. Should be good for the night._ Others moved closer to the lake than I had. They had more confidence in the weather than I did. Odds were the river wouldn't flood as wide and long as it was, but I wasn't in the mood to take risks today.

Soon enough, my own crew found me, carrying what was left of our supplies, helping me to set up camp. Once the tent was erect, Gan sent me to collect kindling for warmth and dinner while Gi Gu was sent to try and fish for said dinner. Gan had become something of the leader to our small crew, being the driver, he viewed himself as having the most power. I went along with it. He was the eldest of us anyway and I liked to think he knew what he was doing. He probably did too. I at least hoped so.

Finding kindling was no small task. Trees were scarce around these parts considering we had left the forests behind us three days ago. From that point on, we had come to rely on whatever we could to start a fire. Being a firebender didn't mean shit if the fire died 3 seconds later. Sure, I could probably keep it in my hand, but I didn't think we would be willing to cook a salmon over my out-stretched palm any time soon. We had come close in that tank, but not **that** close.

I picked up some dead branches and leaves from a tree that hadn't yet been touched by our armored division. I left some behind for at least one other tank crew, and once again came to pity the infantry. They really had the worst end of the deal. That was probably the reason that Lieutenant General Zahckrael had chosen to tag along with us rather than his original unit. I could already see his command pavilion being raised on the biggest hill in the area, a red blot against the dusk sky.

By now, the wind was picking up, nearly blowing all of the kindling I had collected straight out of my arms. I held it close to my chest as I raced back to camp, back against the south-bound wind, quickly stashing what I had collected within the closed walls of the camp. Gan had already set up his sleeping bag in my favorite spot, the right wall. I liked to have my right side facing the doorway while my feet faced it as well. It meant I could keep an eye on it whether lying on my back or on my side and I liked to have eyes on the entrance at all times. Guess Gan felt the same way. I settled for the far back of the tent, straight across from the exit. The entrance of the tent faced west so at least the rising sun wouldn't be in my eyes come the morning.

The fire pit hadn't yet been dug, but neither had the tarp been put up. Judging by the weather, I anticipated the fire pit would end up being dug inside the tent rather than outside, so I decided to grab the tarp off the ground, wiping the dirt off of it, and setting it up above the tent. It didn't take me long to realize I was too short to reach the top of the tent, a discovery I hadn't made prior to a lack of need of the tarp. Now, however, some extra inches would have been welcome.

I saw Gan approach from behind me, slightly chuckling at my failure until offering to help only after a good minute of entertainment. "Go help Gi Gu with dinner. Kid doesn't know how to fish for shit."

So as Gan set up the tarp above our tent, I moved eastwards, towards the river and the empty sky where around 30 soldiers where now gathering around with the same ideas for dinner.

We had been provisioned with rations for the journey, but we realized after taking initial inventory that it wouldn't be enough. We had all made the same discovery and hence, here we all were, fishing for the same fish, all with the same amount of misfortune by the looks of it.

"They won't bite!" Gi Gu exclaimed, visibly frustrated. "Don't like worms, assholes!?" he yelled, most likely at the fish, but I couldn't be sure.

"Is the worm still on the line?" I asked.

"Of course the worm is on the line, look!

He pulled out the line, seemingly frustrated that I would ask such a stupid question, but it had been less stupid than he had expected considering the bait was gone.

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled, throwing the pole on the ground. "I'm going to help get a fire ready. You do this or something, I don't know!"

I had never learned how to fish. The next 30 minutes proved as much as rain started coming down as droplets and I found myself still unable to hook a single fish. I made habits of attaching two worms at once hoping for better results that never came. I never had learned how to fish, but I **had** learned how to shoot fire and the fact I was wasting my time trying to take them alive seemed rather silly to me. SO I would attach bait the hook and the line, leave it shallow enough in the water, leaving the pole on the ground, keeping a foot on it lest a fish decide to take the bait and the pole with it. I stood waiting for the next fish when I heard a voice behind me say, "That's not how you do it you know."

"Don't judge me, Danev. I'm hungry."

"Never learn how to fish?"

"Well. Let's see. I was born in the middle of the slums, never stepping foot outside the city until 6 days ago. Take a wild guess."

"We have sewers."

"You fished in the sewers?"

"No. Just saying we had 'em."

"How are you contributing to this conversation again?"

"Don't know. Just by commenting on your entertaining lack of fishing skills."

"Skills that you possess?"

"I never said that."

Danev had been quiet for the last week ever since I told him about what I had seen with Aden. He refused to believe that Aden kill himself. Of course, eventually, he accepted it. He told me that he never took Aden for the kind of person to go down without a fight. The news took him rather hard. I could tell he cared for Aden. They had been part of the Hornets for a long time and now, we were the only two left. It was a frightening realization, but an honest one. Now, however, the Hornets were gone, buried or burned in Citadel with Aden's corpse. It was pronounced "the 5th Corps" now.

I saw the fish come near, ready to investigate the not at all suspicious food waiting on a hook. He took his bite and I took mine. Once the ripples in the water as well as the steam had cleared, a fish floated to the surface of the water, belly up, a black burn across its body.

As I waded into the water to collect my prize, and a sizable one at that, Danev asked after me, "You been practicing more?"

"My firebending?" I asked as I picked up the fish.

"No, you're fishing skills. Yes, you're firebending."

"Every now and then during the nights. At least now that kind of thing is expected of me."

"It wasn't in Citadel?"

"In Citadel, I was the only firebending student. At least here I'm with others like me."

"There **are** none others like you. You're still the youngest of them. If anything, you stick out more."

I shrugged. That wasn't the whole truth of it. In reality, my growing habits of practicing more were due to both an admiration of the ability and the fear of what would happen if I didn't know what to do when my life was put on the line.

We started to make our way back to camp, myself holding the fish under one arm and the fishing pole in the other.

"You going to take that fish back to your camp?" he asked.

"Yeah. You wanna join us?

"No thanks. Us officers were invited to the command pavilion for a feast tonight. I'm going to dine with the Lieutenant General himself."

"Your hilarious." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Thanks, but I'll pass on the dinner. We convinced our driver in the transport to pull over because we saw a nice-looking deer. We're splitting it amongst the infantry."

"The entire 22nd?"

"No. Just the infantry from Citadel. Turns out that they're not the bigoted fucks they used to be. Guess being in the same army with the same probability of death does that. Your crew treating you well?"

"I would say so. Knowing I'm the only defense they have in that bucket of bolts keeps them respectful."

Danev chuckled. "Glad to hear it. You're welcome to the venison tonight with us if you want any. Zanrick still has some of the rum he smuggled out of his parents' house before we left. I think his parents would be almost happy to get one last reminder of their kid before he went to war."

"I'm good. You know what they say. 'Say 'no' to peer pressure and all.'"

"You're hilarious."

"Thanks. I'm the only thing keeping morale in my crew alive."

We got to my tent. The tarp was up and sure enough, the black dot was a Fire Nation insignia, facing the sky proudly. And not a moment too soon. The rain was picking up.

"I'll see you this time tomorrow?"

"Probably so. Have a good night."

"Try not to drink too much. We move out at first light tomorrow."

"I'll be there. I don't plan on being left behind. Trust me."

"Good. Good night, Danev."

"You too, Luke."

And sure enough, me, Gan, and Gi Gu, are inside the tent that night. We kept the entrance flap open to release the smoke as I cooked the fish with a nice self-made fire. I boiled water that Gan had taken from the river as well which we used to flush down the fish that had one particularly burnt side from a certain blat of fire.

Nonetheless, as the rain padded against the earth ground as I shot fire over the lake that night, I realized that I wasn't in the worst place in the world. I had more friends than I had ever hand before and this time, it wasn't because of survival, there was an actual bond forming between the people in this army.

I created another burst of fire, sending it down the river to the horizon, never to be seen again and realized that I felt something here that I never felt anywhere else. I felt safe. In the slums, that was never the case, nor in the military district. I had ever been safe, but for some reason, right here, I did. That feeling, I knew, wouldn't last. I was heading into a warzone and that safety wouldn't last.

I put my hands together and created a wall of flame in front of me, creating a mist of steam as the water boiled against it, releasing as gas into the midnight sky.

 _But I was ready for it._


	19. Chapter 18: Arrival

**Luke**

It was around midday the following day, the sky still overcast. The rain had persevered through much of the night and part of the morning. It had made packing camp a tedious chore considering the clouds had even blocked the light of the moon. All the same, we were packed by sunup. The cloud wasn't an inch over the horizon before we set out, tanks taking the front and the infantry following the rear.

The sky had stopped pouring down on us, but the clouds persisted, giving the day a dark and bleak tone that opposed how I was feeling at the moment. We were set to reach the wall today. We had been riding for two weeks and today was supposed to be the day we got there. I had heard so many things about the walls of that city that I found myself looking over the horizon every few hours, expecting to see it there, right in front of me. I had to admit, I was excited, on the other, I was nervous and scared out of my mind.

The city ahead meant a few things for me. It meant that I would be viewing what was probably the greatest marvel of mankind in the world, but it also meant that the war would be starting for me tonight. What this had been. This leisure ride across the countryside of the Earth Kingdom was just that, a ride to the real war. If the turf war in the slums was even a portion of what to expect from real war, then I knew that things were about to get a lot harder, to the dismay of the kids I would hear bragging about how "This war is nothing." They would get a bitter taste of war soon enough.

I reached down under my elevated gunner's seat, feeling around for the canteen I had stored by my bag. It was light, but I gave it a shot anyway. Turns out, it was light for a reason. I was out of water. "Shit." I murmured to myself, tucking the canteen back where it belonged. We had left the river behind a week ago and had been relying on the rain ever since. It was getting to the point where I was starting to like the rain. In the slums, the rain would do no good. If it wasn't polluted from the smoke of the military district's industry, then it had flowed down the sides of the sandcrete buildings, carrying shit and dirt with it wherever it went. I knew a few people who had died from that water. LightHead was among them, one of the Hornets back in the slums. He had gone for whatever water he could find whenever he got the chance. He was always thirsty. If he hadn't died from that flu, I wondered if he would have changed his drinking habits. Probably not.

I had my seat raised all the way up, leaning against the side of the tank, hatch open, letting the breeze of the day blow at my face. We were riding with 4 other tanks. 3 of them were occupied by other new graduates from citadel and one, the leading tank, _Iron Gauntlet,_ was occupied by soldiers from the original 15th armored. When I saw the gunner of their tank rise out of the hatch, turning around to face our tanks and giving a hand signal to stop, I ducked my head down back into the tank with an atmosphere thick with heat and sweat, yelling "stop!"

The tank came to a stop too sudden to allow me to brace myself. My head clanged against the same spot where it would clang every time Gan pushed down the breaks. "You have to fucking ease the pedal!" I yelled at him, my head still ringing.

"It's too damn sensitive. The slightest touch stops us in place.

"Are you pushing the brake pedal or the foot break?" Gi Gu asked.

"They're different?"

"Fucking idiot." I murmured, half smiling as I raised my head back into the noon sky, ready to receive orders and relay them to my crew. _My crew._ It was weird starting to refer to them as that. For the longest time, 'my crew' had been the Hornets and the people that came with it, but that was a long time ago. That crew was dead even if not everyone from it was. I was starting to see Danev adopt the same mentality as me. It had taken him longer to adopt his new brethren, but Aden's death had pushed that process along quicker than expected. He was Fire Nation now. **We** were Fire Nation now.

The tanks engine had ceased, and our squad leader, Captain Zaedra was ready to make his orders heard audibly, sticking his own head out of the hatch to make himself clear. The man now barking orders was a veteran of the war from what I had heard. He had fought in the 5th Siege of Ba Sing Se before the 15th Armored had been formed. He was part of what the Fire Nation had called the "Iron Gauntlet", a division of tanks only, each with a master firebender as gunner. I remembered reading about the division back in the Citadel school. The Iron Gauntlet had seen much success throughout the Earth Kingdom, taking city after fortress after town, raiding, destroying, and leaving before reinforcements could arrive. During the battle for the impenetrable city, however, the Iron Gauntlet had been assigned an impossible task: to scale the walls of Ba Sing Se. 100 tanks started the ascent and only 1 made it back down in one piece, only after losing its gunner. It was described as onlookers as though the wall itself was fighting, breaking off pieces left and right to take down the tanks with it. The crew of the surviving tank was disgraced and retired until the Fire Nation had decided to lower recruitment standards. The crew was re-enlisted and sent off to the 15th and here he was, a disgraced soldier trying to win back his renown.

"There's a farm house up ahead by the crossroads. It's burned out, so it looks like our boys have already passed though here a while back. All the same, I want Units 347, 348, and 349 to form a perimeter. Unit 350 will come with me to secure the house and form a lookout point."

"Shit." I whispered. "What are we?"

"We're 350, right?" Gi Gu responded.

"Yeah." I responded. "I think so."

When I looked back outside, waiting to see if the three over tanks began their tasks, it occurred to me that they were as lost as we were.

"Well?!"

"Fuck it." I heard Gan say. "Let's find out who we are."

I felt the tank accelerate forward, toward _Iron Gauntlet,_ desperate to find out if we were where we were supposed to be. In the end, it didn't matter. The other three tanks, piloted by kids just as clueless as us, went to their own tasks, splitting up in three different ways, plowing through dead fields of failed harvests, forming a perimeter around the farm house, taking our movement forward as indication of their standing.

Our tank moved parallel to the _Iron Gauntlet,_ so I was face to face to the veteran himself and by some act of bravery or stupidity, I asked "Are we unit 350, sir?"

"You are now." He responded, ducking back into his tank, the gunner replacing him, and we rode to the charred farmhouse ahead that I could now start to see through the mist of the day.

Sure enough, we had passed through already. Not us particularly, but the Fire Nation for a certainty. It was hard to say how long it had been. There was no smoke and no bodies to inspect. It was abandoned.

Zaedra had ordered the gunners of both tanks to go out and inspect the structure, leaving me and the gunner of the _Iron Gauntlet._ He, over 10 years my elder by the looks of him, took point. It was obvious he wasn't a firebender, demonstrating just how low Zaedra had fallen, going from manning one of the most dangerous firebending tanks in the world to having a youth of no more than 24 as his gunner.

I was half his size, but in terms of experience, I didn't feel that far off from him. He had the look of somebody who had been trained for war but had never seen it. I had no doubt he knew how to use his weapon, and use it well at that, but I had my suspicions of whether he had ever fired it something standing on two legs before.

We approached the house, crouching to the entrance, stopping at the door that led inside. It was closed and locked judging by the fact it didn't budge when the crossbowman tried the door. "It's locked." He said. "Think someone's inside?"

"It could just be stuck."

"Maybe so."

"All the same," I started. "Let's be ready if someone's in there. I doubt they'd be friendly to us considering what came of their home."

"If they understand who it was that did this to their home, they'd be smart to be as friendly as humanly possible."

"Good point." I replied.

"Break that door down?"

"With what? My 12-year-old brute strength? You're twice my size. Kick it down and I'll cover you."

"Thanks, but I don't want an inexperienced, finger happy firebender standing right behind me. Shoot that door down with you firebending shit or whatever and I'll cover you with my bow."

"This entire house is a box of kindling. If I sneeze within a mile of this house, it's gonna go up like a nice big bonfire."

"Fair point. That's not how I intend on going out." He walked out in front of the door from where he had been in cover, raised his crossbow so it was aiming straight at the center of the door, took two steps back, and charged forward, placing a nice kick right on the center of the door, kicking it in half rather than in, and sending a portion of the ceiling coming crashing down on the porch we were entering from."

When we were done coughing and sneezing from the cloud of dust that had washed over us, we proceeded with our check. "Check the downstairs" he ordered. "I'll checkup."

I wasn't disobedient. I followed orders when they made sense. If they didn't make sense, I didn't follow them. Having faith in a supervisor was an important part of war. You had to have faith in those leading you in order to follow orders. Therefore, war a two-sided affair. A soldier had to show loyalty and obedience to those above them just as an officer needed to command respect. If one failed their job, then the system was compromised. I remembered reading about what had been called a "social contract", the mutual respect and trust between a master and his subjects and as little as I liked to consider myself a subject, I knew where I stood. If an order make sense, or I saw nothing wrong with it, or I had faith in my leader to not put me to waste, then I'd follow it to the letter, but if it didn't make sense, or came from someone who had no qualms with wasting the lives of his men, then I wouldn't. That's just how it worked. And checking the downstairs of this house, that was fine. No harm would come from that. Busting this house open with fire, however, that I wouldn't do as it would likely get both me and him killed so therefore, I didn't do it. It's common sense than a definable system.

The home's interior was no less depressing than it's exterior. It was burnt to its foundations and it was a miracle the house hadn't collapsed in on itself considering it was made of what appeared to be rather poor-quality wood.

I ventured to what appeared to be the living room first. The cloth of the furniture had of course been burned off and the wooden foundations of the furniture were in pieces too. I wandered to a pair of bookcases by the far wall of the living room, but any books that had been there had been burned as well. Sad thing too, I doubted the Earth Kingdom was able to print books as quickly or efficiently as the Fire Nation and any books they had were gone for good. What a waste of good writing. Somebody would have put months into a single on of those books and now there were dozens of them, burnt to a crisp. There was only one, lying on the floor that was still somewhat legible. I picked it up and blew off the smoke. _The History of the Houses of the Earth Kingdom Great and Small._

I went to the kitchen next. It was empty. Either taken by looters or by whoever had lived here before they fled, assuming they **had** fled, and their ashes weren't scattered on the floor around me.

I could hear the crossbowman above me, scouting the upstairs. Dirt would fall wherever he took a step to the extent I feared any second he would come crashes through the floor right on top of me. As I went through the house, I noticed a trap door that led to a cellar. He told me to check the downstairs. That was about as downstairs as it went. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. Being on the floor however, I had good leverage to break it open. I gave it a good kick or two, but it refused to budge. It was probably being help by a padlock or a chain. I stepped onto the trap door, giving it a good feel, and jumped. Sure enough, it broke open. The wooden door was gone, and I was able to drag the chain that had held the door together along with the splinters that had previously guarded the basement.

The moment I took a step into that cellar, I felt a cold air embrace me, leading me further away from the stuffiness of that burned home. The second I was in, however, I wanted to step out. There was an obvious smell of rot that hung in the air. The room I stepped into in the cellar was empty save the barrels of what I assumed was alcohol lining the walls. I knew that wasn't where the smell was coming from, however. The barrels were actually empty from what I observed when I lifted their lids. The cellar didn't end there, however. Another room led off from the main room and I followed.

The smell got worse as I approached, and I saw what I believed to be the source. It was a distillation still. Whoever was living here was probably growing wheat to sell to merchants or caravans going to Ba Sing Se. Good way to make a living. _Until it's not._ The still, however, was not the source of the smell, no. That honor belonged to the corpses in the corner. Three of the, one smaller than me, a kid. I forgot the smell was there then. As the rats raced passed me, I saw the marks that littered the bodies of the dead. They had been dead for months now, but all the same, the way they died was apparent. The biggest among them held a knife in his dead hands, the two next to him bearing cut throats. _They were trapped down here. They had no food, their house was burning, it must have been winter. They had nowhere to go. He killed his own family rather than let them starve._ I saw the whole in his forehead and the dried blood the marked the tip of his knife. _Then he killed himself._

I didn't even hear the crossbowman's steps behind me. "Luke, for Spirits' sake, the fuck is that smell." Then he saw what I had. "Oh. Shit. That's. That's uh."

He moved to the corner of the room opposite of the still and vomited into the corner. I was still looking at the bodies, wondering how the man had felt. Did he believe he was doing the right thing? He was saving them from a worse death. They would've burnt or starved, and he chose to make it quick, but, did he see it that way? Or did he curse himself and die crying?

The archer was finished puking. I heard the splashing against the wall come to an end. I tried to remember the first time I had seen death. It wasn't Mini. Mini wasn't even close to the first, just one of the more gruesome deaths. I wasn't sure if I had a first sight of death. I think it was just part of life. You never remember what the first thing was you saw or the first thing you ate. Mostly because you're too young for it, but it's just something that happens all the time.

Eventually, we left. And hours later, when I was reading the book held in my right hand with a flame in my left while seated inside Unit 350, reading of the slaughters that had occurred and the thousands of families that had suffered fates identical to that of that family, I attempted to convince myself that once the Fire Nation won, there would be some semblance of order and peace in the world and that such killing would see an end, but there would always be obstacles blocking the way to peace and order.

That night moon high in the sky, I saw that obstacle. It didn't stand out as I had imagined it would. It took me putting out my reading flame and allowing my eyes to adjust before I saw it. The tanks stopped in unison, our squad now reunited with the rest of the 5th Corps, and I knew it was there. On the horizon ahead of me, to the East, I saw it, where the stars and sky ended, and darkness began. Hat was the obstacle in the way: The Black Wall of the Great City of Ba Sing Se.

And we were going to bring it down.


	20. Chapter 19: Digging the Trenches

**Lieutenant-General Zahckrael**

We were here. It's been a long two weeks, but we were finally here. I raised the repurposed gunner seat of the tanks to extend myself above the hull of the tank, giving be an overview of where we were. It wasn't much of an overview, however. We had arrived right when we expected, in the black of the night, a new moon concealing our location. We timed it just right. In the distance, as though a line of black paint had been swiped across the just as black horizon was the wall. We made it.

I turned to face the plethora of tanks just now stopping, their individual gunners rising to view the wall in front of them, or more likely searching for it. The majority of the men here will be awed by it, already picturing themselves raising Fire Nation Banners atop it while being awarded for their heroism. The rest, well, they would be dreading the sight of it. The 5th Corps wasn't entirely new recruits. We had our fair share of veterans as well. They wouldn't be excited as the rest, for the better too, I needed smart soldiers as much as I needed energetic ones.

I heard Lieutenant Zand's tank pull up next to mine, almost as ornamentally decorated. I had taken the lead when it came to that, however. The inside was almost as nice as the exterior, as cramped as it was. Space in the cargo hold had been cleared away to give myself more room which I was rather grateful for. The interior wall had also been pushed forward somewhat, giving myself even more room at the expense of the pilots. They didn't complain; however, they knew better than that.

"Tanks are in position, sir. We've arrived further north than initially anticipated. We are currently sitting at coordinates S2, H3. Would you have us move further south, sir? Towards our original target?"

 _Further north than anticipated. How'd that come to happen? We've been using compass and sun alike, the two agreeing with where we were headed. How were we off? No. We weren't off._ "You're mistaken, Zand. We're right where we're supposed to be."

Whether he took that as me disagreeing with his positioning or the need to move south didn't matter. The important part was that he'd submit, and he did just that. "Aye, sir. Orders?"

"Order the men to dig the trenches with reinforcements and set up perimeter spikes. I want watchtowers set up at the corners of our encampment. When the infantry and the supply train arrive, we'll set up the artillery on the ridge behind us." I said, motioning at the raised ground situated behind where we intended to set up our camp. "We'll place the supply train between the artillery and the camp. We'll overshoot it anyway, so it shouldn't matter."

"How do you want the artillery set up?"

I didn't catch his meaning. "Sorry?"

"Trebuchets up front? Or?

"Yeah. Sure. Cannons in the back, trebuchets up front. They have a shorter range, so we'll keep it that way."

"Yes sir. Should we have any form of defenses on the eastern side, covering our flank?"

"Only a skeleton defense. Dig a small trench line, but nothing more. I want our men and time dedicated to the west and north. That's what I'm worried about."

"Of course sir. Should we send a messenger hawk to General Iroh? He'll want to know we've arrived."

"Do it. By the time it reaches the Dragon of the West, we should be set in and ready for the offensive. Relay the orders."

"Yes sir!"

Lieutenant Zand went on to leave the confines of his tank, something I'm sure he was appreciative of after the day of its confines and went on relaying the orders to messengers to send to the rest of our men.

I looked back to the wall, to the challenge ahead. _We're here. The Earth Kingdom's fall begins now, and I will be the one to see it through. The Dragon of the West will be credited with the organization of it, sure, but I will be the one that saw his plans execution. It will be me. And me only. I'm ready._

 **Luke**

The dirt was hard and course, most likely a result from days of rain. This spring was coming along hard. It certainly wasn't letting us forget the dry season was over. The constant pouring of rain was serving to remind us of that as well. There was no end to it by the way it seemed. I hit the shovel into the ground again, stomping my foot on the top of the spade to drive it deeper into the soil. Our entire tank division was at work, and not enjoying it as much as you'd expect.

Gi Gu was one of the many to make his opinions loud and clear. "It's, what, 11 in the fucking night and they're having us dig up these trenches for hours on end?"

"You've been digging for 30 minutes, Gan" said Gan."

"Doesn't matter. Feels like I've been here for hours. What's the point of this anyway, doing it in the dark of the night? We'd be going ten times as fast if it were this time in the am."

I spoke next. "Probably because they don't want the Earth Kingdom looking down on us as we make ourselves at home. They'll go to sleep in their comfy homes thinking they're safe and wake up the next morning seeing a Fire Nation camp, trenches and artillery set up, ready to clean up their city."

"That's rather naïve." Said Gi Gu. There's a reason the East Front is abandoned, you know. I heard that the Northern Water Tribe's been raiding the coast and even been going deeper inland. They got 'emselves a nice deal with the Earth Kingdom way I hear it where they sell what they loot to the soldiers to use against us when we attack."

"Who're you hearing this from, again?" asked Gan.

"Y'know. People."

"You're guessing." I corrected.

"Maybe so. I know about the water tribe though, that's a fact."

"That was the northern front, dumbass." Said Gan. "This is the Eastern Front."

He chortled from where he was digging, sending another shovel of earth to the pile behind him. "Yeah right. I don't care what that fancy tank douchebag says, this is the North. I studied the maps while you were driving. I know what I saw. See where the wall takes a curve over there." He said, pointing at the wall. I saw it. I was sure Gan did too. It was hard to miss, a tumor in the wall more or less. That's apparently where the city's lake was. Lake Laogai it was called. But if that was to our left, the south of us then-

"Ya see it, don't ya? That's supposed to be to our right, to the north, but there it is, plain as day to our fucking left. Meaning we got water just a few miles north of us and with that, a very close friend of the people trying to kill us."

I heard the stories of the northern front too, but pushed them from my mind, picking up the pace of my digging, attempting to outmatch nature and its efforts to reverse my efforts with its constant downpour.

We were digging mud now at this point, and the soil was flowing eastwards, down the slope of the growing trench that we had yet to flatten out, building up at the rear of the trench, creating yet another buildup of soil we would have to dig up later on. I pushed my shovel down again and felt it clang against something hard that wasn't rock, but as a matter of fact, sounded like metal.

"I hit something!" I yelled over the rain.

"It's just a rock." Called Gan. "Pry it out."

So I did just that. I pushed the shovel a bit east of what I thought I had hit and probed the ground forward until I found the familiar object and shoved the shovel in deeper, finally finding its underside, and as though I were using a lever, attempted to send it to the topsoil. It was heavier than any small rock. I didn't want to think about how large it was. It made sense though. We were digging deep and the soil was coming along nicely. I'd say it went around 4 feet down now. Plenty of room to stand and move inside, but we were far from done.

I heard a voice further down the trench call "Holy Shit" and had no idea what they possibly could have been referring to until I finally managed to dislodge the rock and bring it above the dirt only to realize that the rock was an armored fire nation soldier, half rotten, arm missing below the shoulder as well as a leg, maggots colonizing the body, and eyes staring directly at me. "Holy shit!" I yelled, falling backwards out of surprise, my back hitting the eastern wall of the trench.

I wasn't the only one to find what I did. All of a sudden, the world around me rose into shouts of surprise and disgust as we came across the bodies of our predecessors. There was a mass wave of panic that ensued as us soldiers scrambled out of our trenches, the smell of rotting flesh now overcoming that of rain and wet soil, puking into the dirt piles they had made. I was among them, letting my insides leave my body. The puke then mixed with the rain and continued to flow eastwards down the ground's slope, reuniting with the sick of hundreds over soldiers in a now growing pool that only encouraged me to give it another go and throw up again. Gan and GI Gu were right beside me, but unfortunately for them and myself, were still having at it. The sight was enough to bring the image of the dead soldier back to my head, letting me go for a third round.

It took Lieutenant Zand riding past us on his tank, going right through the puddles of vomit, splashing it into the air in an almost humorous display and yelling at us to get back to work to send us back into the trenches.

All of a sudden, every soldier in the 15th armored division was conscious of every step they took, stepping in between bodies only to step on more that were buried deeper. Some soldiers lost their stomachs again, but I was determined not to. The sooner we were done, the better.

"See what I mean?!" called Gi Gu from where he was in his trench, unearthing another body, seemingly enjoying himself for some odd reason. "I was right. This is the northern front all right. Know who these guys are? Look at their insignias." I looked. An eye patched Fire Island raider from before the Fire Nation was unified under the Fire Lord, breathing fire in a roar of rage. "This right 'ere's the 106th. Our predecessors and our business model. We make the same dumbass mistakes as them and it's gonna be some other dumbass kids, probably younger, digging up our bodies ad commenting on how much of dumbasses we were." He chuckled again, only before losing his stomach to what felt like a fresh wave of that rotten smell, and puked onto the raised land, contributing further to the now sickened and sullied soil.

"What do we do with the bodies?" I asked Gan.

"What do you think?" he asked, bending over to pry his arms under the closest soldier. "Take the bodies out."

He was in no shape to carry the soldier twice his age and size. He looked to me and knew what I had to do as much as I didn't look forward to it. He moved to the soldier's shoulders and put his arms under them as I moved towards the dead man's legs.

"Alright. On 3. 1…2…3!"

We lifted, almost getting the soldier a foot off the ground when Gan yelled "Oh Shit!" and let go. The body fell to the ground, almost bringing me on top of the dead man. I looked over then to Gan who looked as though he was trying to claw his arm off. "Get it off! Get it off me!

After a few seconds of his struggle, I saw a disturbingly large worm fall off of my friend's arm and burrow into the side wall of the trench, no doubt plotting how to ruin the rest of the night for us. "What the hell was that?!"

"Something I sure as fuck don't want to see again." I replied, still having to talk over the rain that hadn't even begun to subside.

"You're not the one that had that thing climb up you arm. Scary as fuck, man."

"What now?"

"Shit, man. He's too heavy to be carried and who knows what else in spirits' name is hiding in that poor sod's body. We should take his armor off. It would make 'im easier to carry."

"Dude. Seriously. Fuck this." I was no fan of the thought of what was hiding inside the soldier's body, ready to claw out in search of a new host. There was no pleasant way of looking at this.

"We gotta start eventually."

I looked further down the trench line where it seemed everybody was having the same struggle, working on their individual bodies. As the rain weathered the soil even more than it originally had been, I began to the feel the metal of more dead men beneath where I was standing. There was no getting around this. We had work to do.

"Fuck it." I started on the soldier's legs, pulling of his boots with less effort than I had expected, only later realizing that I had pulled off a part of his foot with them. The frost of winter would have frozen the soil and those underneath it. _Shit. I just pulled off a guy's foot._ The thought almost made we want to laugh, but I dared no breath in any more air than necessary for the fear of releasing my stomach any more than I already had.

I threw the boots over the trench line in a pile of clothing we were making and moved on to the soldier's leg plating, removing the pieces of armor clasped to his leg. As opposed to the soldier I had unearthed, this one still had all of his limbs. Funnily enough, the one I found would have been easier to carry. Less weight and all. That time, the thought **did** make me laugh and moments later, I found myself bending over and puking onto the ground. "Shit, man." I mumbled after wiping the puke on my sleeve. I can't do this."

"We take the bodies out of this trench or we're spending the night sleeping next to them. Would that make you feel better?"

"Screw off. I'm working on it."

I added the leg plating to the pile of armor that seemed to be a growing trend amongst other soldiers, especially the graduates, coming the realize the weight of a fully armored dead man.

I unclasped his utility belt and moved it off of him and finally got around to the armored codpiece. Without his armor, the man looked even more dead than he had with. He was skinny, frighteningly skinny, but I supposed that came with death. His body was bruised in a strange manner as though he had been killed by the earth itself. There was a silent mutual understanding that we would keep the man's clothes on. We finally reverted to our original positions and were in too much of a rush to go through the same routine of the count-up. We tried but struggle with lifting the body 4 feet high, so we propped him against the eastern wall as Gan lifted himself out of the trench to pull the soldier up as I pushed against his legs. The underside of the corpse was now revealed to me, displaying the wide array of species that had colonized the surreal hole in the man's back. I endured the wave of bugs rushing down my arms as I made the last push and finally felt the man's center of mass reach the top and let go, swiftly brushing off the cretins that had split off from one another and gone their separate ways on my own body.

When I finally felt they were all gone, I swiftly climbed up the trench, uneager to give them any more of a chance to crawl back up my legs and saw Gan standing on the side of the trench, looking down in grim disapproval and even fear.

I stood next to him and looked down as well. The rain had done its part and washed the topsoil away. Where, in that trench, there had been dirt before, there were now broken support beams, and bodies. Lots and lots of bodies. What had once been green grass and brown soil was now a conclave of huddled together black and red body armor.

The bodies and their proximity to one another, as well as the now unearthed weapons and support beams said only one thing. We were digging the exact same trench buried by those who came before us. We were making the exact same mistakes as them. Same trench, same location, same stupid idea of a siege. It was going to be a brutal war. And judging by what lay below us in those trenches, we had a long night ahead of us


	21. Chapter 20: Scouts

**Luke**

I wasn't awakened in the kindest of fashions. I jolted awake to the feel of a boot kicking me in the knees, bringing me to my feet before I was even awake. And like that, I came out of a dream that's as real as life itself until the moment you open your eyes and it's all gone. I was standing, alert as ever, facing the wall as our squad leader moved past me, awakening those still asleep in a similar fashion. The sun was hardly up, but it was there. The wall, the sun reflecting off of its earth brown walls shining right into our trenches. It was a new day.

As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I tried to recount the events of my dream, unable to recover the smallest detail. They were so real, however that I felt it was myself experiencing it. I could've just been recounting memories from my past for all I knew. It was no strange thing for myself to wake up struggling to realize I wasn't in the Hive or some pile of garbage in a Citadel slum. _That's the past, Luke. It's over._

I was awake now, standing in the middle of the trench, lost and unsure what to do. "What are our orders, sir?" I yelled to the commander who's name I had yet to memorize as he made his way through the trench awakening his men.

"Briefing! 5 minutes!"

5 minutes. I wanted to wash my face off. I wasn't awake as of yet. I had slept in full body armor, unwilling to take it off given the conditions I had slept in being mud, rain, and corpses, or remnants of corpses. We removed most of the bodies from the trenches, or at least the bodies visible to us when the infantry finally arrived an hour or so past midnight. They helped us remove the last of the bodies and relieved us as they dug mass graves for the bodies. The same mass graves I was walking past now on my way this minute.

I was afraid that the Lieutenant General didn't get the beautiful encampment he wanted. Instead of straight and reinforced trench lines, he got small segments of trenches scattered about that had yet to be connected. A defensive perimeter had barely even been set up. There were no spikes set up and I was still awake when the wind pushed over the watchtower while it was being made, sending the soldier atop it crashing down with the watchtower on top of 3 other men. They were all alive from hat I heard later that night. Beat up, but alive. Word spreads quickly in a camp like this.

The tents weren't as uniform as hoped for either. The crimson didn't stand out against the landscape as an artist might wish it to but had rather taken the brunt of the storm and was lined with mud and muck that had been carried by the wind from our construction efforts. It was rather hideous as a matter of fact.

I made my way to what was still being set up as the camp sanitary station. Latrines hadn't been dug yet and some went so far as to bury their excrement along with the bodies still lying in the open mass graves. If anything, it was the infantry's fault for not burying the bodies yet. Maybe they were still expecting more to be dug up today. No doubt the better part of today would be spent tidying up the camp and hoping to do some last-minute organization before the Earth Kingdom woke up and saw the nice little campsite we set up. I wondered if they would even understand if they were under siege. Looking at the sorry state of the camp I was in, I wouldn't have guessed it either.

I waited my turn in the line of soldiers who had the same idea as me, only spotting one other kid my age among them, probably in the armored division judging by the scrawny look of him. I didn't catch a good enough look at his face, but thought I saw Gozdan. He wasn't exactly one of the kids I talked to a lot. He was more so one of Zihe's type. I wondered how that little prick was doing, probably still talking shit about me after what happened to his face. I wondered if he took the bandage off yet and if he did, how badly he looked.

It was my turn and I turned the knob, releasing a steady stream of water coming from tanks of water that had been set up by the infantry after being hauled atop the backs of newly developed Fire Nation trucks. Bigger than tanks, but less well defended, they also rode on treads, but had room on a flat bed in the back to carry supplies atop it. Among these supplies had been water, weapons, and soldiers. Most of the trucks had been given to the armored to carry their limited assigned infantry who played a support role, among them the "non-armored" kids of Citadel and a few other soldiers. Of course, that organization was purely for the trip. Now, Danev and the rest of the infantry soldiers would be assigned to the 22nd, all under the authority of the 5th Corps, of course. Our trip to this city had been our last real assignment together. From now on, he would be moving on to his new unit. I wondered if I could find him before briefing was called.

Answering my question, I heard a whistle coming from further in the camp, grabbing the attention of myself, mid washing my face, and the other soldiers by me. "Briefing!" the voice that came after called. "15th armored."

I waited for him to also call for the 22nd, but it never came. I guess I wouldn't get the chance. Maybe after the day was done, I would have the chance to catch a few minutes with Danev. I was eager to hear his take on the wall in front of us that was still captivating my attention.

 **Zand**

"No, Sergeant. The older plans don't apply anymore." I scolded Sergeant Azdun, my assigned second in command after he continued to ask stupid questions I had answered hundreds of times prior. It took me taking the initiative to shut him up before he made me do something stupid out of anger.

"Because, sergeant." I continued. "We are miles north of our intended target." I referred to the map, pointing lividly as I made my next statement. "We are **here.** Not there or there or there, but right fucking here."

"Okay sir, but our orders are to arrive at coordinates S2, I7. Our orders don't apply if those coordinates are wrong."

"That's why we're having a fucking briefing, sergeant. To get organized before the Earth Kingdom fucks us in the ass."

"But shouldn't we relocate if the coordinates are incorrect?"

"Oh for the love of Raava. How old are you, sergeant?"

"21, sir."

"Then since you're a bit too young to understand, your commanding officers will rarely ever admit they were wrong, especially when it's too late to go back and fix it. The camp is set up, right location or wrong, who gives a shit. Those bodies we dug up last night were from the 106th division, our predecessors, and we're going to end up just another layer in this soil if we don't get our shit together. So go to your squad commanders and rally them now!"

He left. I had my orders from the Lieutenant-General. He was assigning infantry to finish the camp and armored to scout. I was now faced with deciding where the scout parties went. I had 30 tanks squadrons, 5 tanks a piece, so 150 in total, unit number beginning at 300. I would have started at 100, but some of the Dragon's tanks units had started at 0 so his numbers went far higher than 200 so it would have been confusing if we ended up meeting one another. A decision I was fine with making, but back to the tanks. Zahckrael wanted at least 1 squadron checking on the listening post between our host and the Dragon of the West who was besieging the Southeast of the city. Being on the complete opposite side of the city as him, it would be a longer journey to the listening post. We had sent out a raven last night for the Dragon, but had received no answer as of yet, pointing out potential problems with our checkpoints. It would be my job to check it out, or, more accurately, send the real soldiers to check it out.

I didn't want veterans on the job, but I didn't want newbies either. The newbies would be better for checking our flank and the veterans would be more suited to checking the North, but I needed a good squad or two to check up on that listening post. No. I had plenty to spare. I could send at least 10 squadrons to check up on that listening post. It might be overkill, but if the post was in jeopardy, then it would be worth it. 50 tanks would definitely be able to take it and hold it.

I looked at the coordinate grid for this area of Ba Sing Se. We had to use a less updated one as we had made the most recent maps for the square south of us rather than this one, but considering we were off target, we didn't have that much of a choice. I used the grid to create lines for our patrols. I didn't expect any combat this early on, but I was taking precautions. I sent the veteran units north as far as the Northern Earth Kingdom coast. They would be strictly assigned to report any Water Tribe movements. I needed to know if we would have to bolster our northern defense line that would otherwise have been covered by the wall, but here we were, no point dwelling on it now.

Soon enough, all 1000 of my men were present. 450 tanks crews and 550 engineers, mechanics, medical crew, and logistics. They would be staying behind to work on the camps defenses and really expand our reach while the drivers would work to make sure they didn't get killed by some surprise attack while doing so.

I wasn't used to giving briefings but didn't have much of a choice at the moments.

"All right, men. At ease. If you haven't noticed yet, we've made it to Ba Sing Se." That earned a few chuckles from the audience, taking them out of the stressful state that had plagued them through the night considering the task they had to complete the last night. It wasn't pretty work. "You may not have noticed, but the camp isn't looking to pretty right now. Naturally, we're going to be busy with housekeeping work. Now, drivers, I wouldn't dare bore you with the tedium of housework but will rather send you to make sure we don't get killed while doing so. You will be assigned per squadron, so squadron commanders will be asked to meet with me following the briefing and copy down their route patterns with pencils on our maps. I recommend pencils and not pens as we are short on maps at the moment. Drivers, break fast and be ready to head out. Medics, Engineers, and Logistics, you will stay behind and report to the Lieutenant General for re-assigning within the camp. Dismissed!"

The men saluted be as befit my ranks and headed out as the drivers made their way to eat, the support made their way to the head of our host, and my 30 squadron commanders made their way up to me. I remembered learning that Captain Zaedra was amongst the men I was leading. Higher ranking that me, but still under my command. Felt like it would be more embarrassing than simply being demoted. The man was a legend. I pitied him for the fall he had experienced from the days of glory of the "Iron Gauntlet."

Nonetheless, I had orders to distribute, and among my veterans, Zaedra's crew would undoubtedly be heading north. I needed veterans like him keeping the Water Tribe away from us.

 **Luke**

I had never before seen all of the faces of my tank squadron in one place before. Previously, when we set up camp on our way to Ba Sing Se, we all went our separate ways, setting up our tents leagues away from one another. The again, we hadn't even set up our tents yet. The majority of the 15th armored just went to sleep in the trenches, too exhausted to set up tents given the day's work behind us. Shitty thing too. Best spots were taken now. Gi Gu had suggested skipping breakfast to set up our tent, but Gan ordered us against it as we wouldn't have time, and this would likely be our only meal until dinner and to savor it. So we ate instead. It was good enough food. Nothing fresh, just some preserved ration packs.

It wasn't long until our squad commander came up to and ordered us up saying "Meal's over. Grab your gear and get in your tanks. We leave in 5 minutes."

None of us were in that much of a rush that morning. 5 minutes was long enough anyway. Zaedra's lack of fire in his voice that morning also didn't help to emphasize any sense of urgency. It was more of a neutral and informative way of speaking. _Wonder if he's comparing this to his glory days. That would depress the hell out of me too if I were him._

I made my way over to my spot in the trench where I had spent the night, hoping never to spend another one there, past the mass graves that were finally starting to be buried, and grabbed my helmet. I didn't get a weapon like the rest of my squad given my "abilities", but I did get a kick ass helmet with a white visor that made a habit of looking directly at me and scaring the hell out of me whenever I woke up. It was an alarm for me of sorts and every time, my morning-self cursed my night-self for arranging my helmet to face me that way.

I got to my tank before Gi Gu and Gan, sitting atop the tank, waiting for the others to arrive. I didn't bother sitting inside as it would be pretty humid and stuffy in there following the night's weather and I could raise the seat without the power of the tank being on and I wouldn't dare turning on that tank without the rest of my crew. One of Zaedra's strict rules was to never start the tank without the full crew being inside. Gi Gu had been a smartass and asked what to do if someone in the crew was dead and Zaedra's response was to stare him in the eyes and say, "Then you carry them on your back into the tank, set them down in their seat, buckle them in, and get going."

It shut Gi Gu up and he hasn't made a joke around Zaedra since, for which I was rather grateful.

It made me wonder about the bodies we were burying, however. I asked myself before why we didn't send the bodies back to the Fire Nation, but then it occurred to me where we were. We were in the heart of Earth Kingdom territory. It had taken us two weeks to drive here with the number of vehicles we had and there were more bodies than the tanks could hold all together. It would be a waste of resources and time, but still, the families of those soldiers would never see home again.

Maybe it was for the best anyways. I saw those bodies. Half of them could hardly even be considered bodies anymore. They were just parts. Calling them bodies would be overstating what was left of them, but I still couldn't help but pity their families. Their mothers, fathers, wives, children. That's why we had to end this war. To end that killing as soon as possible and the way it seemed, a Fire Nation victory was the quickest and most humane way to end this war.

That was why we were here, at the heart of the Earth Nation. To end this war.

My crew arrived soon enough. I made way for Gi Gu and Gan to enter the tank through the hatch and took my seat soon after, immediately discomforted by the expected humidity and stuffiness of the tank. As soon as power in the tank was on, however, I raised my seat to a level where I was halfway sticking out of the tank and settled in.

It was a nice morning and it was looking to be a nice day. We were heading North by the looks of it. I may even get a chance to see the sea. Wouldn't that be something? I had never seen the ocean before. I had read about them, sure, but seeing it would be something different entirely. Bodies of water full of salt and exotic life. I wanted to know one thing ever since I read about the oceans and about the spirits that formed them: Why did they make the oceans undrinkable? Were they angry at mankind, or were they just assholes?

I shrugged it off. It didn't matter. I had my job and my only job here was to keep and eye out and report anything interesting I saw. I really should tart writing this down. Before I forgot, I took out my knife on my belt and made the day's tally on the interior of the hatch. Day 15.

I set my helmet under my seat and felt the tank, following its procedurally checks from Gan and Gi Gu jolt into life as we moved forward, taking our place in the left flank of the formation. I heard Gan knock against the base of my seat and I lowered it slightly and bent over to hear what he had to say.

"Just so you don't ask me later what we're doing, when we get far enough, the squadron's splitting up to cover more ground and we regroup later at the same spot. I'll tell you when. Just wanted to let you know."

"Thanks for the heads up. What's the spot?"

"Zaedra's gunner will signal when and we'll split off. We have our vectors set so we'll just continue in that direction until midday or an incident, whichever comes first."

"Define and incident."

"Zaedra said to look out for Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom scouts so don't drift off. I need you to stay awake, got it?"

I slumped back into my seat. "It's going to be a long day." I murmured to myself as I raised the seat back to its previous level.

I looked at the day on the underside of the hatch once again. Day 15.

I looked at it again when the day was over. Day 15 and no incidents.

Day 16 and no incidents.

Day 17 and no incidents.

Day 18 and no incidents.

The camp became more of a camp than ever before. We set up our tents and I began to come under the impression that the Earth Kingdom forgot there was an Eastern part of Ba Sing Se.

The days continued without incidents for a while. Everything seemed to be going along smoothly as though there was never anything to fear. Everything went smoothly…

…Until it didn't.


	22. Chapter 21: First Encounter

**Luke**

I've been getting used to the jerky halt of the tank, but it still never ceased to piss me off when it did. I didn't bang my head, which was an obvious plus, but nonetheless, I was losing a good amount of sleep over it. Today was one such occasion.

"Damnit" I murmured to myself, having woken up again. The overhead hatch was closed, but fresh air was still coming in from the firing slit, allowing for a good dose of fresh air that usually helped me to fall asleep. Today, however, at least at this time, it was doing me no such favors as it was allowing some rather strong sunlight to be making its ways directly into my eyes, more than likely blocking any chances of sleep in the near future.

"You all right, Luke?" Gan called, from the passenger seat this time. Zand had insisted that we start rotating roles in the tanks as there was no imminent threat from enemy forces as far as we could see. It had been a humdrum schedule for the last 2 weeks. The first week, we were all on edge, keeping close eyes on the wall, making sure no earth benders were at the ready to rain down boulders on our heads. This last Sunday, Zand seemed to realize that we weren't being attacked at every corner and ordered us to begin role rotations. Gi Gu had been on gunner duty and had earned some practice with a crossbow while Gan had tried navigating and I made an attempt at driving. I remembered what I had been momentarily taught in Citadel and had no issue reacquainting myself with the war machine. Unit 350 was the beast's name. Wasn't too original, but it served well when the name on the documents matched the name we called it. I had no idea what kind of strings would have to be pulled to earn official recognition for a custom tank name. Probably a good record or competence at the least. Frankly, I had no special affection for the vehicle that Gan had. Maybe that came from driving it, but I didn't know. The only special place this tank had in my heart was that it was a good place to catch some sleep.

"Yeah." I mumbled, waking up from what was probably my fifth nap today. "Just drowsy."

"Yeah, well, you're gunner today so we need you to keep an eye out."

"We're patrolling with the others and I want to think they're not as incompetent as me and at least paying some attention. Besides, what is there to keep an eye out for?"

"Nothing we can see."

"Exactly. Nothing we can see."

"That's not a good thing. You know earth benders and how they are hiding inside a city with walls made of, well, earth."

He had a point.

"You're right. It's just that sleep isn't coming to me as easily as it used to."

"Neither with me. Do you feel it too? The earth moving underneath you?"

"How'd you know?"

"We all feel it. Don't know if it's the worms burrowing, buried alive soldiers from the 106th, or earth benders fucking with our morale."

"Or Earth Benders digging underneath us, ready to fuck us in the ass while we sleep."

"Could be."

"How about you, Gu? You feel mother earth also bitch slapping you in the middle of the night."

There was no reply and I bent down to remember he was driving, eyes fixed on the road as though he were gazing at his first pair of tits. "I asked a question, Gu!" I called again, now just talking to mess with him.

"Meh." Gan interrupted. "Leave him alone. Let him get comfortable knowing how to move this hunk of junk before we start trying to sabotage him."

"Fair enough." I replied, chuckling."

"Woah Woah Woah!" Gan called, placing a hand on Gi Gu's shoulder, motioning for him to slow down. The tank in front of us, unit 349 had just stopped dead in its tracks and we were gaining on them quickly. "Slow down! Slow down! Break!"

I didn't think Gi Gu would find the break, but, somehow, he did, inches away from the nice people in front of us.

The crew of unit 249 didn't have any trouble also recognizing just how close we had been to ramming into them from behind and their gunner poked his head out, not a Citadel kid, but some teenager by the looks of him, flipping us off with malicious intent.

I poked my head out of the now open hatch as well, mouthing the word 'sorry' as I knew he wouldn't be able to hear me over the engines. The gunner shook his head and turned to look at the left treads, looking for whatever the problem was.

We soon enough realized this wasn't going to be a short stop and turned off our tanks. Zaedra opened the hatch to his tank and was able to be heard now that it was dead silent in the middle of now here, once again headed north, with a big ass wall to our left.

"Unit 349! What's the hold up!?"

"Don't know, sir!" the gunner replied. "We just stopped. Something wrong with the treads, I think."

"Well get out and check it out. It's hot as hell out here!"

"Yes, sir!"

The tanks were situated in a V formation. Zaedra and the Iron Gauntlet were at the tip of the V, leading the squad, while we followed, forming the sides of the V. Unit 349 and 350 made up the left side of the formation. He would be on the outer edge of the V without cover.

I was alert now. I looked around as the teen gunner began making his descent from the gunner's seat, moving into open territory. I was expecting Zaedra to order us to reform the V, placing the gunner inside the V as he was heading towards the tank's left treads. No such order came and as little as I knew about military procedure, I knew that under no conditions did you ever give the commanding officer suggestions.

The gunner was moving about the rear of his tank, making his way to the vehicle's port side when I quietly said, "I'll cover you."

"Don't do me any favors, slum trash."

That took me aback, but only momentarily. I was used to it, I guess. _Word got around quick._ "Asshole." I mumbled to myself.

I was watching the top of the wall now. I only realized now just how close to the wall we were. No more than a quarter of a mile off. An adept bender could easily send a sizable boulder directly on top of us, and as though expecting to hear the whistling of a boulder sailing through the sky towards us, I held my breath, but to no avail. _Probably for the best._

"Umm. Sir?" the teenager called.

"What is it, Private?" Zaedra replied.

"It looks like the Earth is covering the treads."

"Be more specific, Private."

"It looks like it's grabbing the treads."

"Say again?"

I wasn't expecting those to be the last words that teenager ever said. I was still looking at the wall when I heard a voice say, "Oh fuck." From within the tank. I looked towards the tank, and a spike of solid rock was pointing out of the ground at an angle going straight into the young soldier's neck, blood spurting out of his mouth as he struggled for air.

There was a silence that followed as nobody else could see what we saw and what we saw we couldn't begin to understand. See. I had never seen an earth bender before. And I knew that neither had any of my crew before. Hearing about something was one thing. Seeing it was another. We all knew it existed but hearing about people building great structures and seeing a needle of solid rock being plunged into a kid's neck was another thing.

Then the earth began to move around us like it had in the middle of our sleep and from beneath us rose soldier after soldier, still concealed from the rest of the formation by the victim's cumbersome tank. We were the only ones that could see it, and we were wasting time.

"We're under attack!" I yelled.

I fired a blast at the oncoming attackers, quickly scattering them, giving myself a second to lower my seat and close my hatch just in time for me to hear the whistling sound of some projectile flying in the airspace of where I had just been, killing my past self whether it having been arrow or boulder.

The sounds of tank engines were now coming to life, but as I tried to rotate my gunner seat to face the attackers however I could, I found it unable to move. We had no power.

Gan realized it too when he saw the petrified Gi Gu sitting at the dashboard.

"Gan!" I yelled. "Tell Gu I need power, now!"

"Gu" Gan yelled. Turn on the engine!"

I heard no engine. I just hear Gi Gu glued to his seat, mumbling "Holy Shit. Holy Shit!"

Gan had no patience for it. He reached over to Gi Gu's side, pulling the ignition cable twice before starting the engine. He could start the engine for the driver, but he couldn't pilot and there was no room or time to switch seats.

The surge of power allowed me to rotate the gunner's seat to face the attackers. None were where they had been, they had made their way throughout our formation, going above or below to infiltrate our meager defenses. The two tanks on the right flank of our formation had broken off as I observed when I rotated my seat to face them, seeing an Earth bender in the process, rising from the ground, sending the earth towards unit 249 in front, covering it in rock, holding it down to the earth.

We have to go. "Gi Gu! Let's go!"

"Holy shit. Holy shit."

Two smaller figures arrived in the scene, perhaps having been in cover or using the passageways created underground by the earth benders, but they scrambled up the tank, throwing two objects in the hatch that had been left open by the now dead gunner.

Gan was the one to yell this time. "Gi Gu. Get us out of here!" I looked at the driver's canopy and saw that Gan had already set the tank to reverse and was just waiting for Gan to accelerate and get us out of the battlefield.

Seconds later, the tank in front of us burst into flame, fire spurting out from the open hatch, soon followed by two soldiers in Fire Nation armor, set ablaze by said fire, collapsing onto the ablaze tank in an effort to escape.

It was enough to scare Gi Gu straight. I felt the tank jerk backwards as we began our retreat, and for once, was completely fine with banging my head on the lowered wall.

The Iron Gauntlet was still in place, but it was surrounded. Their archer, however, was holding off the line. From the tiny slit in the tank, he was loading and firing at a rate unbecoming of a crossbowman, shooting as though it were a simple bow and arrow. He was cutting through his attackers, but not quick enough. The Iron gauntlet would be overwhelmed.

Gan turned around to face me and said "Luke. Lock the hatch. We're getting the hell out of here."

"The Iron Gauntlet's surrounded." I protested, looking up and locking my hatch in the process, scolding myself that I hadn't done so at the beginning of the encounter. "We have to help."

"Look at them", he replied, our tank now stopped as the Earth benders gave up on us and were now focused on the command vehicle. "They're dead, but we're not. We have to go now."

"We can help them. I'm a bender. We can save them. It's our job."

Gan looked out the viewport, looking at the scene ahead of him. There were around 5 earth benders and 7 non-benders with bows, trying to fire in the small openings in the tank to an unknown avail as I couldn't see what was going on inside that tank, but considering they were still fighting back, they weren't out of the game just yet.

"Fuck. Gi Gu. Switch with me." Gan began climbing over Gi Gu who readily moved under Gan to find his place in the passenger seat. Gan was at the controls and had already strapped himself in. I followed suit, strapping myself in likewise for the bumpy ride ahead. "Fuck you, Luke." Gan said. "Let's do this."

The tank sped forward, heading towards the right side of the Iron gauntlet. I turned to my left, seeing the attackers on this side, 2 benders and 3 bowmen shooting at the side of the tank and took my shot. The first blast hit one bowman square in the back, sending him screaming and tumbling on top of another bowman who promptly attempted to free himself from the captivity of his friend, but he was well stuck underneath him. Our tank circled around the immobile iron gauntlet which I could now see was being restrained to the ground akin to the first casualty of the battle.

I didn't have to change the way I was facing. As our tank turned, making a loop around our ally, the enemy remained on our port side, this side not having seen what we just did on the other. I fired another blast, this one catching a bender in the back who recovered more easily, ripping off the cloak that had taken on flame, throwing it to the ground.

The tank was picking up speed, making circle after circle around the enemy, but Gan knew what he was doing. He didn't let himself become predictable. He kept his loops varied in terms of speed and direction. One the second loop, we had finally gained the attention of the attackers. I managed to strike another bowman, sending him to the ground instantly, my gaze lingering on him long enough to watch his struggle with the growing flame. It gave the crew of the iron gauntlet the chance at retaliation they needed. As we made our way around the tank once more, the hatch of the gauntlet opened up, revealing their own crossbowman who shot a perfect bolt directly at the closest earthbender, sending a steel bolt directly through his neck at the same moment my flame struck him, sending him to the ground, already dead.

Finally, retaliation was directed towards us rather than the other tank. I had no idea where the other units: 348 and 346 had gone, but we were here to stay. I felt the tank jolt as a chunk of earth rose from the ground to knock us in the side, but in Gan fashion, he maintained control. He spun the tank around in a dizzying fashion, narrowly avoiding the next boulder headed our way and pushed the pedal to the medal. I felt a jolt underneath our tank and it took me a minute to realize that it was one of the earth benders that we had just run over.

There were only three other earth benders left. We were now rotating around the tank clockwise rather than counter clockwise, currently making our way to the tank's left side.

Those attacking the iron gauntlet's left side failed to note our change in direction and were taken by surprise when we reared the corner, guns blazing. I chose my target carefully, sending a blast at an earth bender who was in the process of raising a sizable portion of the planet earth above his head, ready to crush the adversary once and for all. The blast of fire hit lower than I had hoped for, but did good in hitting his exposed left leg, causing him to stumble. He realized his mistake when it was too late, trying desperately to recover his telekinetic hold on the earth only resulting in failure and his death as his creation came toppling on to him.

As we made our final pass, I saw one last Fire Nation issue steel bolt go through the eye of a bowman in a grotesque display as shards of skull clanged against our tank. The scene was enough to disgust the enemy as well.

The earthbenders were in so much of a retreat they abandoned their nonbender brethren, retreating into the earth and closing the escapes alone, leaving their comrades to us.

Without the muscle, they realized it was hopeless. Of the remaining 3 nonbenders, 2 ran and 1 tried to surrender. It didn't work. The iron gauntlet's gunner put a steel bolt through his head just as he began to raise his arms in surrender. The remaining two nonbenders managed to get away. It was no matter. We had survived. We had won. Somehow.

Then the adrenaline wore off and I saw the cut that had gone through my right sleeve and the arrow on the seat next to me. I had been grazed by an arrow. Some lucky nonbender had been able to get a shot inside the tank. I couldn't help but chuckle at that. _Odds were he wasn't so lucky anymore_ I judged by the bodies littering the ground.

I exhaled, now feeling my hear pounding against my chest. We were alive.

I leaned down into the tank, hoping to see the rest of my crew just as unscathed. And we were. More or less. "You guys okay?" I yelled.

"Gi Gu took an arrow to the shoulder, but he'll be fine. I'm good too. Thanks for asking. You?"

"Got grazed by an arrow, but I'm good."

"They're damn good shots, huh?"

"No shit." I said, chuckling, glad that he had noticed too. "Think it's safe to go out?"

"I'd give it another minute or two."

"You good, Gu?" I called.

Gi Gu didn't answer. He had already taken the arrow out, but he was pale. Wasn't sure if it was from the injury or the shock. I myself was starting to feel the shock come in, as well as the pain from the cut.

The crew of the iron gauntlet wasn't coming out either. Were they alright?

"I'm going to check on them, alright?" I called.

"Be careful. Come back right away if it looks bad."

"Got it."

I tried opening the hatch, only realizing afterwards that I had locked it. I unlocked the hatch, opened it, raising my seat, and crawled out. The air, where it had previously had a smell of freshness and noon relaxation, was now contaminated by the smell of smoke, blood, and death.

I made my way through the field, walking past a dying bowman, trying to put out the remaining flames with the last of his strength to no avail. He died right as I walked past him. Arrows and broken rocks littered the ground as well as the fuselage of the Iron Gauntlet. I made my way up it, brushing off debris and knocked on the hatch, hoping for an answer from them. It took me knocking a second time before the hatch popped open and I saw the horror inside. More of the tank was blood than metal. The gunner was the one who had opened the hatch and he had two broken off arrows inside of him. One in his chest and the other in his side. He beckoned for me to move aside and tried crawling out of the tank. Despite being over twice my age and size, he motioned for me to give him a hand and so I did, helping him make his way out of the hatch. He let go, and slid down the side of the tank, coming to a halt just where the fuselage ended above the tracks and laid his head down.

I looked back down into the tank, wondering if Zaedra was still alive. He was, but I couldn't say the same about his pilot. The man had a chunk of earth lodged into his forehead and an arrow in his heart. Zaedra was holding the man's head on his lap when he looked up at me. There was no usual anger or stubbornness in his eyes. This exact thing had happened to him before and I could see from the look in his eyes that he was tired.

I didn't have time to speak before he asked, "Your crew all right?"

"Yes. Yes sir." I said, stumbling around my words.

"Good. The tank that got hit?"

"All dead, sir. They lit it on fire."

"Bastards." He said, in a voice that held swears of eventual revenge.

"The other two?"

"Ran off, sir."

"Damn them. But you stayed."

"Yes sir."

"Why, kid?"

"It's our job. We don't leave men behind."

He chuckled. With the look he gave me, I felt like he was looking at what he saw to be his younger self. Normally, a look would have made me feel uncomfortable, but today, it made me feel pity. I felt sadness for the soldier who had just lost another of his crew today.

He looked down to his fallen brother in arms, then back up to me and said "You did good, kid. You did good."


	23. Interlude 1: Fixing the Mess

**Lieutenant-General Zahckrael**

We have been here for 2 weeks and this siege has been everything but that, a siege. No fire had been exchanged between the city and our ever-growing camp and there still has been no communication between our host and that of General Iroh. The very first encounter we even had was 2 days ago, and it hadn't exactly gone well according to Fire Nation expectations. 1 tank and crew all dead, 2 tanks and their crew complements deserted only to retreat back to camp, currently waiting in captivity for cowardice, and 1 dead of Zaedra's crew. How was Gu's crew, the crew of only Citadel orphans, the only one to escape unscathed? Were they really just that lucky? Or was the new generation really what the Fire Nation had always hoped for? A generation of soldier raised in service to their nation whatever the cost. At this point, it certainly looked that way. I had called in Zand, assigned commander of the 15th Armored, and Zor'ak, assigned commander of the 22nd Infantry, my two closest commanders.

"Did you get any more details out of the survivors?" I asked Zand.

"Only what we already knew. 12 attackers. 7 non-benders, 5 earth-benders. Final casualties were 3 earth-benders and 5 non-benders on their side."

"And 4 non-benders on our side. Plus the 6 deserters. And a tank."

"Yes sir" replied Zand, ashamed, viewing the cowardice of the men as his fault despite not having been commander of the 15th for 2 weeks. The blame wasn't his or anyone for that matter save the 6 who deserted, and they would be punished accordingly.

"Sir, if I may-" interrupted Zor'ak, not even waiting for leave to speak before he did, "Infantry is much more fit for the job of battling Earth-Kingdom forces. The armored serves more of an auxiliary role. They aren't fit or ready for full-front combat as we can see."

"So I imagine that you'd have handled this situation better?" Zand replied. "Enlighten me.

"We would have marched with 100 of our men to encircle these earth benders and if they tried to escape, burn them out from their holes."

"You mean you'd march 100 men on standard patrol, not knowing any attack was imminent, would encircle an invisible enemy hiding underground and burn them out of the endless holes with, what, 10 of your division's limited 100 firebenders?"

"Quiet. Both of you." I stated, ending the argument before violence erupted. Zand was right on the count that an attack had been unexpected, but all the same, the results were clear. We had lost more than we had gained, and we were low on men and supplies. We couldn't face losses like we did 2 days ago. "Zand. Have we received any word from the 3 squads sent to the listening post?"

"No sir." He breathed out. "I've lost all contact with them. I sent a messenger hawk and that's the last I ever saw of it. So the bird could've been shot down, or the team's been compromised."

"Then assuming the worst, we lost 15 tanks, 45 men, the listening post has been secured by the enemy, and we're cut off from the Dragon of the West." _The report was sounding too grim. I needed a break from the 15_ _th_ _._ "Zor'ak, what's the state of the camp?"

He straightened himself, raising his voice to make sure we could all here the undying confidence of his voice as he made his success known to us all. "Defenses are in place. Trenches span the south, north, and east sides as well as 3 layers of defensive spikes with anti-infantry mines between them. Watch towers have been set up every 100 yards and are manned night and day. Torches have been set up from here to a mile from the wall, lighting no man's land which is rather empty at the moment."

"And morale?"

"The men want a fight, sir. Send them to that listening post, and the 22nd will have it taken in no time."

 _The 15_ _th_ _had failed to take it. Maybe the 22_ _nd_ _would be what I needed. Some brute force where speed and armor failed._

"Lieutenant General." Zand interrupted, actually waiting for permission to speak unlike his counterpart.

"Speak freely, Lieutenant-Commander."

He referred to the map, pointing to the span of land between our camp, admittedly north of our intended target, an admission I wasn't fond of making, and Iroh's host, near the South West of the city. "It's clear that the Earth Kingdom has reign over this area. Whether it's mines, guerillas, or a strong military presence, it's not safe. They're waiting for us to commit more and more men to bleed us dry. Rather, I suggest we move with haste, in a way they won't expect."

 _"_ Explain."

"If rather than moving south, we move north, going around the other side of the city, we can make it to the Dragon's host from the North rather than the South."

"You would place whoever you send between the sea and the city. They could be surrounded with ease."

"If we send them off at the beginning of the night, they could, at full speed, make it to the western mountains by dawn. From there, they'd be out of sight of Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom forces. From there, they could find their way to Iroh's camp, re-establish communication, an perhaps set up a more northern based listening post rather than what we have which has clearly failed."

"You can't possibly be considering this." Zor'ak interrupted. "Think of all the men he's wasted up to this point. Now he wants to send a squad of tanks to sneak past a city of earth-benders? You cannot-"

"I can do whatever I please, soldier. You're dismissed. The rest of this meeting does not concern you."

"But I"

"Go!"

The anger came to his face, but he contained himself. He saluted, and left, leaving me alone with Zand. I wasn't lying. The 22nd wasn't involved in what was left to discuss.

"Do you have a particular squad in mind for this operation?"

"I do. And that leads me to my next question. What are we to do with the survivors and deserters of the encounter."

"That depends. What do you recommend be done with your men?"

He paused, considering, as though making some final choices in his head that he had been pondering for a while before finally letting it loose. "Morale is low as it is. Stories of how easily a tank was taken out have my men ill at ease. They are focusing on what went wrong when they should be focusing on what went right."

"What did go right?" I asked, with some bitterness I hadn't intended, but I couldn't be blamed. We ended up on the losing side two days ago. We lost far more than we gained. What could have possibly gone right?"

"A single tank, relying on speed and accurate attacks, was able to dodge the attacks of enemy earth-benders and provide support to an immobilized vehicle, that even when immobile, was able to hold its own due to proper defensive measures and strategic defensive timing. That's the story that needs to come out. I recommend field promotions to the crews of unit 350 and the Iron Gauntlet."

"Granted. There will be no ceremonies, but make sure word gets around the 15th. It'll be good for morale to know that bravery gets rewarded. And the deserters?"

"I recommend small scale court martials and trials with them accused of cowardice and endangering of squad mates."

"Punishment being?"

"If found guilty, execution of drivers via hanging and reassignment of gunners and co-pilots to new units."

"Very well. I'll leave the assignment of these new squads and soldiers to you. Trials will be held tomorrow. When do you plan on launching this expedition north?"

"Perhaps the day after tomorrow, but it needs organization, and I think I have the unit in mind."


	24. Chapter 22: Post-Battle R&R

**Danev**

I was still waiting for Luke. Some of the guys from my platoon were celebrating our first encounter with the enemy. Calling it an encounter was a tad bit generous, however. Besides, it wouldn't be recorded, and it would stay off the books. Zor'ak made sure of that. I had seen Gan wandering around the camp and told him that he and Luke were invited, but it seemed like the message hadn't gotten back to Luke. I figured they'd deserve some form of celebration too after what they went through 3 days ago. We all heard the news and were pretty pissed that the 15th armored beat us to it. Chief among them was our Major General, Commander Zor'ak. Envious, jealous, glory-hungry commander that he was, he knew how to avoid the authority of his superiors, something that me and the men of the 31st platoon were practicing today.

I was still working on my drink, a sub-par Earth Kingdom wine we found during our "engagement" with the enemy when our platoon commander, Lieutenant Zean'in stood on top of the nearest table in the feast tent, quite drunkenly raised a glass, and in a whispered yell, obviously mocking the "cloak and daggery" Zor'ak insisted upon, toasted to us stating "To the 31st Platoon and the first un-successful, un-engagement, of our un-existence!"

I raised my cup along with everybody else in the cramped tent of over 40 soldiers, all still dirty from the engagement for a lack of decency or general hygiene in the camp. Maybe if we had stuck around, we would have set up properly facilities by now. Raava knew I would kill for a proper latrine pit right about now. We had been setting up this camp for the first two weeks of our time here. Despite it being a completely illegal operation, our guys needed it. We were bored out of our minds. At least the 15th armored got to go on patrols, and like Squad 5, see some action. But us? We were infantry. Infantry was the type to get that kind of job. Damn. A year ago, I never would have thought I'd be in a Fire Nation siege encampment, drinking with Fire Nation soldiers, waiting to see some real action. We were still waiting. Sure. We acted like what we did this morning was actually significant. We walked up on an abandoned farm on the outskirts of the city, surrounded the building as though we were besieging it, moved in all organized like, and found 3 Earth Kingdom scavengers who when they tried to fight us, we killed. I wasn't even in the building, but even that was enough to take me out of the boredom for a small while.

I knew that Zor'ak planned on putting more of us out there, but he damn sure was taking it slowly. I guess it would look rather suspicious if an entire brigade left the camp in the middle of the morning for Raava knows why reasons. Still. We were bored. I looked down at my cup and saw the drink was almost gone. Only other good thing about that morning was that the scavengers had good reason to be in that farmhouse. We guessed whoever had left was in a rush because they left anything they didn't need behind ranging from silver and copper pieces that we divvied evenly, and a nice keg of Earth Kingdom wine. It was unlabeled, so I guessed they made it on the spot and sold it within the walls to make a living. I was just waiting to see the inside of that damn city. See what the hell I was fighting. At least then I would have something to look forward too, but damn, the weeks are just dragging by. I finished the drink and set it aside. I was going to look for Luke.

I left the tent with only a few voices calling after me. I knew the names of my squamates at this point but was still working on those of my platoon. I knew the names of all the Citadel recruits who were also put in that platoon, but I still needed working on the others. Zihe's bandage was off and Luke had done one hell of a number on his poor face. I didn't stop to ask if he held a grudge because I was partly certain that he associated Luke with me and while I could take Zihe on rather easily, I didn't want to make a scene. Yet. The divisions in the camp were divided with the 15th armored taking the northern half and the 22nd taking the southern half. My platoon's shared tent was near the center of the camp unfortunately, so we got a lot of foot traffic as opposed to Luke's unit's tent that was at the northern edge of the camp in a nice isolated area. Guess that's what happens when you have tanks and get there first. Next time I'll break an arm and get assigned to armored. Would mean a lot less marching, but, from what Luke had told me, a lot worse smells which I wouldn't have imagine possible.

Another plus of the armored was the unit tents. Instead of having tents assigned per squad or platoon, they divided their tents by unit, only sharing with other tank mates. Now that I thought about, I wasn't sure it was much of a plus considering Luke shared his with Gan and Gi Gu. Gan was alright. I didn't talk to him much back in Citadel as he was with the age group right under mine, but I heard he was surprisingly professional and got in a fight. Not great at hand to hand combat, but a good driver and kept cool under pressure. I could say the same for Luke. Maybe not in terms of professionalism, but even back in the Citadel slums, you could see that he knew his way around the fight even when he was 3 sizes shorter than somebody. He knew enough to avoid and dodge and get away, which, of course, being 3 sizes smaller than someone, is never a bad idea. I could tell he hated it though, being one of the younger and smaller ones. He knew how to dodge, weave, and avoid a fight by instinct, but he knew inside that wasn't him whenever I saw him. I knew that he wanted to fight, to stop dodging and hit back. He was making up for it now, though. Being taller and healthier and stronger is what really got him to where he is now. And knowing how to control fire with your mind doesn't hurt too, I guess.

Gi Gu on the other hand. He wasn't somebody I would want at my side. He was awkward, annoying, aggravating, bratty, craven, dumb, and other words going in alphabetical order that I didn't have the energy to think of. He got scared easy, had very little self confidence and for good reason, but despite that, never took blame for mistakes he made. Not out of self-righteousness, but seemingly because he blamed it always on other factors out of his control. I had no idea how a mind like that worked. He wasn't like Luke. I knew that Luke had used to be smaller and more scared but that wasn't him anymore. He knew his limits but knew his capabilities too. Aden was an idiot in many regards. Death wouldn't change the way I thought about him. I never hated him, but he wasn't the smartest person I had ever met. He had been right about one thing, however. If Luke had discovered his abilities while still with the Hornets, we would have owned Citadel. Hell, we probably could have snuck back into the streets before we left for the war, formed a new Hornet gang, and started a new reign of badassery. I chuckled to myself then as I made my way through the northern section of the camp, letting the night conceal the 22nd infantry patch on my shoulder lest it initiate any conflict. No. It would never work. Sure, we would get enthusiastic kids to our side hoping to learn Fire Bending too, but Empires always fall and that one would too. There was no future in Citadel. At least not on that side of the wall. For all the shit it led too, I doubted I would be alive still if Luke hadn't made that offer to Zar'un.

Speaking of which, I had expected to find Luke asleep at this hour in the night, but he wasn't in his tent, he was around 100 feet away to the North, on the outskirts of the camp, lighting up some fractions of the night with blasts of fire that looked bigger and badder whenever I saw him.

"That's looking good" I commented from around 20 feet to his left as I approached him in the field.

He exhaled, wiping off the sweat from his brow. It was a cool night, a final winter breeze making its way through the camp, but I imagined his proximity to the Fire and constant movement didn't care. "Thank."

"What do you even do to practice? I don't see any books you have on you for forms to go over, or-"

"Mostly making up my own forms. Not the kind of stuff you see people doing in dojos or celebrations, but stuff that actually applies. I imagine, say, a number of enemies in different directions, and try to hit all of them while staying light on my feet so they don't hit me."

He had no actual targets. We were in the middle of a field. No way to tell if he hit or miss. Or hell, maybe he could just tell. "You could probably ask your quartermaster for some training dummies. I imagine he'll be glad to lend whatever the only firebender in the division needs."

"Does the 22nd have any Firebenders?"

"Not that I know of. We're really running dry in this part of the Earth Kingdom. I heard most of them are either with the Dragon of the West or the Southern Water Tribe."

"Damn."

"What? Don't like being unique?"

"Would really like somebody to practice with. Ever since Master Jeong Jeong left Citadel, I've had nothing new to practice. No forms, moves, anything. Jerk could've at least left a book or something."

"Wow. You didn't call him an asshole. Just a Jerk. I'm proud of you."

"Fuck off. If I respect somebody, I call them a jerk. If I don't, they're an asshole to me, asshole."

"Funny. Put the fire away, grab a sword and I, as your elder, will teach you some damn respect."

Luke chuckled, shook his head, and said "Fuck it. Why not. Never know when the spirits will decide I don't deserve fire anymore."

"Exactly my thinking."

"But I need you to get the sword. We in the 15th aren't allowed them. 'Won't fit in the tank' they say"

"That's dumb."

"Welcome to the army, Danev. Where the hell you been?"

I came back later with two sparring swords and Luke was practicing more firebending when I got back. He wasn't letting up either. I wondered if that battle with the Earth Kingdom had done a number on him. It sure as hell looked that way. I tossed him his sword and he caught it by the hilt. By the way he fooled around with it in his hand, searching for a proper grip, I could tell where his priorities had been lying and I couldn't say I blamed him. If I learned I had the power to control fire too, I doubted I would be fooling around with sharpened steel either.

We stood across the field, facing each other, 10 feet between us when I made the first move. I lunged forward with an obvious strike at his left just to see how familiar he was with the sword. Rather than shifting his torso to the left as I would have done, he shifted the sword to his left hand, angling the blade to swipe my blow to the side with minimal effort on his part. My blade, of course, was deflected to my right and was forced to quickly retract it, sliding steel against steel with a satisfying scrape as I brought my weapon back to a ready position for just a split second before blocking his attack to my own left with his right hand. He was preferring a single-handed grip on his sword which I could understand. It was a smaller and lighter blade and while I had him beat in terms of strength, he had me when it came to speed.

I brought my blade down to try to meet his side, but he brought his own blade down proportionately, blocking my attempt to do so. He abandoned the effort and pulled back, returning to a ready stance. He was still fighting, but I saw his right arm was weak, explaining his shift earlier to his left. I've been learning to read my enemies better. When it came to a fight, you had to know the strengths and the weaknesses of your enemy and how to exploit them. Reading was the theory and exploitation the execution, both of which I was working on. I had my theory ready and now it was time to test it. I brought a two-handed blow to his right, putting all my weight behind it. He saw and dodged out of the way, not ready to meet such a heavy blow. He an attempt to swing to my right side while my sword was still drastically to my left but was too far out of range and missed with my taking a single step back. I tried the same again and brought another two-handed swing to the same side, closing the distance between us. He tried the same once more, this time getting closer bringing him to where I wanted him. I brought the sword to meet his just in time, sending it far away from his own body, leaving him exposed long enough for me to bring one final two-handed strike to his side. He brought his armed right hand to his side just in time to meet my blade, but to know avail. The blow sent him falling back into the ground with the sword far away. He made an attempt to get up, but by the time he had both hands on the ground, my sword was at his neck. I beat him.

"Hmphh." He chuckled, laying back down on the grass. "Good job. Next time I ought to challenge you to an Agni-kai."

"Hell's that?" I asked, sheathing the sword and offering him a hand to help him up.

"A duel between fire benders where- ahh!" he yelled as I tried to pull him off the ground, falling back to the ground."

"Shit!" he murmured, getting up on his own."

"Fuck, man. You alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just took a grazing from an arrow the other day. Stupid archer grazed my shoulder." He moved the shoulder piece of his sparring armor and revealed the tear in the undershirt and the scabbing wound on his shoulder that was no pleasant sight to behold."

"So what the hell happened there? Everyone's talking about it was a hundred different stories."

"Earth Benders dug up from the ground, ambushed us, digging our tanks into the ground while fucking non-benders crawled up the tanks, ripped the hatches open, and firebombed those inside. Smart move. Destroy the crew and the vehicle so even if they lose, they cripple our limited supplies. Won't be surprised if a similar thing keeps happening these next few weeks."

"You expecting more attacks?"

"Lots more. Attack would have worked too if Gan didn't force Gi Gu out of his seat. He almost got us killed."

Luke sat down at the base of the hill that led up to the tent he shared with that very same crew he spoke of now, continuing his story. "Gi Gu has no idea what he's doing. He's scared easily and doesn't know how to survive. He's a risk to not just himself, but all of us."

"Hey. At least you guys got out."

"Heh. For whatever good that's worth. It wasn't that day, but it'll be another, eventually. I'm just trying to postpone that."

"We all go eventually. Just make sure when you do that it's not in this shithole. Can't see anyone wanting to die here."

"I'll drink to that."

"Speaking of which, why didn't you come to the party?"

"What? For the 22nd? I'm good. Besides, I'm not a person for social gatherings. I prefer my solitude. And also, I'm 12. You should not be offering me an invitation to a drinking party."

"It's not a drinking party."

"I could hear you idiots from my tent for Raava's sake. Your lucky Zahckrael's too busy figuring out how to get in contact with The Dragon's host to worry about you idiots."

"Fair enough. So what? You get promoted for the battle?"

"You mean the battle where 2 tank crews deserted, one got burned alive, and another one got crippled?"

"If it's the same one as where you killed a bunch of earth benders and archers, then yeah."

"Well. I did. Private First-Class Luke 'whateverthefuckhislastnameis'. Guess you don't outrank me anymore."

"Shame, but I **am** probably going to get promoted for our tense engagement with the enemy this morning."

"Who put up the bigger fight? The scavengers or the farm?"

"Hey! That farm was falling apart all around us! It did not meet code and put us all at a risk of dust-related allergies. I'm a war hero!"

"Wouldn't be surprised if you got a medal either. They even gave Gi Gu a medal for distinguished service."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Guess almost getting an entire friendly tank crew killed is merit for commendation now."

"You say anything?"

"Hell no. I'm not a snitch."

"Well. Good. I'm guessing he got promoted too?"

"Private First Class Gi Gu. Catchy, huh?"

"That little shit is the same rank as we. Damnit."

"Oh don't worry. News of your heroism on the battlefield will spread."

"I hope not. That battle was off the books."

"What? You and the farm?"

"Wasn't supposed to happen. Lieutenant General wants us solely working on setting up the camp. We're supposed to avoid enemy engagements. Zor'ak didn't take kindly to that so he's having us run patrols and missions on our own. It's dangerous and dumb, but it's good for morale. Makes us feel like we're in the same war as you guys."

"Don't get too excited. It's not as fun as it seems."

"Yeah. I guess. You know what time it is?"

"Time for me to get some shut eye. Got up early this morning."

"More firebending?"

"Can never get enough."

"I imagine. Well. In that case. Goodnight."

"To you too."

With that, I stood up, gave a small wave, and walked off. Luke wasn't the same kid in Citadel. Now, he was a soldier. For better or worse.


	25. Chapter 23: Code Red

**The Dragon of the West**

I had no love for my title: 'Dragon of the West.' A title given to those who would gladly hunt a dying race for prestige and glory. Not one of the better aspects of our nation, but, at the very least it is over now. I am the last Dragon, for better or worse. It's dangerous to think to much on the truth of my title lest I betray the truth and reveal the state of my alleged victims. No. I must not think of it. The last of the dragons are dead at my hands. That is all there is to say regarding it.

We were fools. We should've adopted the skills of the dragons, not shunned them. We should have trained the dragons, not hunted them. The Earth Kingdom would have fallen decades ago if we hadn't been so stubborn as to hunt those whose views of firebending differed those imposed by my father and his father before him. Fire Imperialist we were called. A compliment to those within our lands, a vile insult from those without. We've made many mistakes throughout our history. We've outcasted those who could've been allies, we've killed and destroyed that which could've been assets.

Things will change, eventually. Ba Sign Se is nowhere need falling, but it will. And when it does, there will be peace and I will be next in line. I can mend the relationships we've destroyed, find allies who we've previously exiled. I can help by brother's children, Raava knows they need it. They're young, but far more powerful than Ozai gives them credit for. He sees Azula as a weapon, but she's only a little girl. She needs somebody to love her and nurture her. Ursa, as wonderful a sister in law as she is, is prone to choosing favorites. She's in no means a happy marriage, and it's none of my business, but Azula needs her care and attention as much as Zuko does. And Zuko. I cannot tolerate the way my own brother treats him. His own heir and he treats him like an unwanted pet. He goes so far as to say for all to hear that "Azula was born lucky and Zuko was lucky to be born." My nephew needs guidance. He needs a proper father.

I want to believe that I've been a good father. It's been hard, however, ever since I lost his mother. I've done my best and I can see when I look at my son that I've raised a brilliant and strong young man. I couldn't be prouder of him. I worry for him, however. As brilliant as he is, he, like everyone, is not invulnerable. He gives himself and his battalion the most dangerous objectives and while he always succeeds, I cannot help but worry that every mission of his will be his last. If there is anything I can improve on when it comes to fathering, it is faith. I need to have more faith and confidence in my son who has never done anything to qualify my fears in the time he's been alive.

We stopped the artillery fire a few days ago. There was no point continuing. A change in strategy was required and we were only digging the Earth Benders deeper into their fortifications. That wouldn't be good for us whatsoever when it came time to assault the city.

We've still had no communications with the 5th Corps. I knew they had to have arrived. Even if they were late by weeks, which I wouldn't put past their new Lieutenant General, he couldn't have been this late. I've sent ravens, but none have returned. Lu Ten believes that the Earth Kingdom has seized our listening post between our two camps and is trapping the entire passageway, waiting for unsuspecting scouts to fall victim to them. I've considered sending men north to head northeast around the northern side of the wall, but we know that the mountains are occupied by Earth Benders and it would be a suicide mission for anyone who attempted it. That and the Water Tribe raiders on the coast, it would be a waste of good men. Under the cover of night, maybe a mobile group could get past the wall and the water tribe, but the mountains, no, that was unavoidable, and anyone who went through there, was as good as dead.

"General!" one of my guards announced as he entered my tent, raising my attention from the map of Ba Sing Se and its surrounding area. "Major general Lu Ten wishes to see you."

I didn't need to hear why. If my son wanted to see me, he didn't even have to go through my guards. "Let him in."

The guard nodded and exited the tent, followed by Lu Ten who entered seconds after. "Father." He said with the same fake formality that he never learned to improve upon since he was a kid and he would address me in the most formal way possible, breaking into laughter soon after."

"Son." I replied, mimicking his failed formal tone.

And much as he did as he was a child, he broke first, chuckling, losing the façade. "How goes the siege."

"It doesn't."

"Because we lack reinforcements?"

"Because we lack communication with our reinforcements. They're there, ready to fight, but we have no way to communicate with them. To coordinate our movements."

"It's like I said. You need to reconsider. Let me lead my battalion to the listening post and we can overwhelm whoever is holding it and restore communications."

"Absolutely not! That's precisely what they want us to do. If you lead your men there, you are all dead!" I hadn't realized the harshness and edge to my voice, but my son did, yet, he persisted. He was too brave for his own good.

"You've sent scouts and small fireteams. If we take the bulk of our men, we can overwhelm them with ease or, if we're lucky, send them scurrying off before there's even a fight."

"If you're lucky. Only a fool bases strategy off a luck."

My son ignored the accidental implication of him being a fool, but rather submitted, asking "Then what do we do? Every day we waste here debating our next move, our enemy strengthens, and the assault of the city will be that much more bloody. Is that what we want? More death than we need?"

I knew at this point he was trying to provoke a response. To get an answer. I wasn't sure I had one. I couldn't see a way to counter the Earth Kingdom without putting thousands of my men at risk. Except. Maybe going east wasn't the solution. Maybe going north was the answer, but there was the Earth Kingdom in the mountains. No progress would be made as long as they were there. The Earth Benders there had turned those mountains into an unpassable passageway, but they could be driven out.

"There is one way."

"What is it, father?"

"Take as much of our artillery as you need and your battalion. Rain fire on the mountains and drive out the enemy. They will flee. When they do, you send as many scouts as you can through the mountains to the north with the same message."

"Yes sir. Message being?"

"We're still alive. And we want to know if they are too."

 **Private First-Class Gan**

It was a miracle we were alive. I still had trouble believing we didn't die back there. We shouldn't have lived through that. How did our crew survive while two other crews deserted, one got burnt to a crisp, and the other was badly crippled? Their gunner had died, and I heard that the driver wouldn't survive the injury he took. I pitied Zaedra. That would be one more tank crew he lost to the damn Earth Kingdom. Could we have done anything? Maybe if Gi Gu wasn't sitting in that damn driver's seat, we could have. All I wanted to do was to teach that asshat how to drive and be useful for once, and all we get is a near death encounter I don't wish to relive. And now Gi Gu acts like it never happened. He's sleeping in our damn tent while I go over our half-assed tank operator manual and Luke trains. What the hell is he doing for us? I knew him in Citadel and I remember him not being the most skilled of the bunch, but not to this level. How could he break this easily? I put down the tank manual and moved to shove Gi Gu awake. There wasn't anything in that manual I hadn't read over 5 times already.

I roughly grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him awake. _I'm doing this for you, asshole._ When he woke up, after a solid 5 seconds of shaking him, he slowly opened his eyes, and he looked at me with a tired, half-fixed gaze. A soldier should wake up at the first disturbance to his body and be ready to fight. This kid wasn't a soldier, but I would make him once. We were friends once. Back in Citadel. If it meant sacrificing that friendship to make sure he didn't put the life of himself or the lives of our crew in jeopardy, then it was worth it. "Get up!"

I ended up dragging him out of that tent by his shoulder when he refused to awaken on his own and felt a strength I hadn't felt before. I was angry. I tried telling myself that when I did do this, it would be out of love and concern for the soldier I was trying to save, not out of hate, but I kept on seeing his paralyzed face as we sat in that tank, watching the unit in front of us burst into flames, unable to move, just waiting for us to go up in an all too similar blaze. I threw him to the ground, and, finally, he was up.

"Gan. What are you doing?"

"Shut the fuck up!" I grabbed the latrine water we kept outside the tent and splashed what was left in it on the still half sleeping soldier.

"What the hell! That was my piss!"

"Shut up! Grab your sword."

"It's not on me. It's in my tent."

I kicked him in the stomach, halting his recover and sending him back to the ground. "A soldier doesn't go anywhere without his weapon. Grab your weapon!"

"This isn't funny, Gan."

"You're damn right it isn't. Grab your weapon."

I gave Gi Gu a minute to wipe the piss from his eyes and get up. When he didn't, I pulled him up by the shoulder and threw him in the direction of the tent. I unsheathed my own sword, waiting for him to come out with his weapon. I stood directly in front of the tent flaps, sword in hand, making it obvious I was ready to fight. Gi Gu failed to recognize an apparent threat, so I swung.

Gi Gu failed to block my attack or avoid my attack so the swing took him in the leg. It was a small scratch, but it sent him to the ground. These swords, good quality. Perks of our recent promotion. An actual infantry weapon.

Gi Gu was on the ground, no longer holding his sword, grabbing his leg, blocking the stream of blood flowing from his leg.

"A standard issue Fire Nation protective leg plate protects your shin and leg from bladed weapons to an extent. Why are you not equipped for combat?!"

"You just told me to grab my damn sword!" He was in pain. I could hear it in his voice. It hurt to hear, but it had to be done. He had to learn.

"Your enemy won't tell you when to prepare for combat! You must always anticipate conflict when surrounded by enemies!"

"You not my enemy, Gan. We're friends!" He was choking on his words. I could see tears glistening in his eyes as he still lay on the ground. _We are friends. I wanted to say. That's why I'm doing this._

"Now you're injured. You're covered in piss and your wound will become infected if you do not treat yourself. How do you treat an injury!?"

"I-I don't know!"

"You disinfect. How do you disinfect a wound?!"

"Wit-Wi-Wi"

"Alcohol! Where do we store alcohol for disinfection!"

"In our-our packs!"

"Grab it, then!"

"I-I-I can't stand. It hurts. I don't have my pack on me."

"Then you're dead!"

"Why are you doing this, Gan? We're friends!"

"I'm doing this because you put the lives of your crew, of your 'friends' at risk. You froze when we counted on you and we almost died because of you!"

I kneeled down and grabbed the fresh private first-class patch sewed to his uniform and cut off the strip of cloth with my sword, throwing the portion of his shirt and his rank insignia into a nearby perimeter fire, burning it, leaving his left shoulder bare but for the skin on his bones. "If soldiers can be rewarded for cowardice and endangerment of his comrades, then you would do just fine, but that's not how this works. You got lucky last time and it's a miracle we aren't all dead by your hands!"

I snatched the pin he had pinned to his shirt and ripped it off, tearing his uniform even more. I threw it to the ground and crushed it with the heel of my boots. "If you hadn't frozen but knew how to drive and we weren't in that damn tank to stop you, you would have run! You would have run because you're weak and you're a coward. Those who did desert were trialed just yesterday and were hanged. I was there. Luke was there. You weren't there. You should have been there. You should have seen what the world does to cowards and weaklings like you! It kills them! DO you want to die so badly!?"

"N-n-no!" He was crying. Tears were rolling down his face and soaking into his clothing.

"So you're a traitor? Trying to get us killed, willing to give your own life to see your comrades killed alongside you?!"

"I-I"

"Shut up! What are you then!"

"I'm. I'm a soldier."

"No. You're not a soldier. You're a coward. A loose end. Soldier's don't cower. Soldier's don't cry. Soldier's fight."

"I'm. I'm so-sorry."

"Don't be sorry! Learn! The world showed pity and for that, you aren't a burnt carcass trapped in the burnt hull of a tank."

"I-I didn't mean to- "

I slapped him cross the face, sending him down to the ground. "Stop fucking crying!" He wasn't covering his leg and the grass below him was turning red from his blood. Good. Maybe blood would teach him.

"Now. What the fuck are you!?"

"I'm. I'm a coward." He stopped his crying. He was working to stand up. _Good. Keep going._

"Yes. You're a coward, but you're going to learn how to be a soldier. You failed to learn in Citadel, so you'll learn now." I offered him my hand and when he accepted, I threw him back to the ground.

"But get this straight." I continued. "If you put the lives of me or Luke at risk again and I see that there is a choice between the life of you or a real soldier, I will discard you without a second though, at least until you prove you are a real soldier! Understand?!"

He was done crying by now. He was sitting up on his own and had wiped the tears from his face. The first lesson was always the hardest, but he'd learn. "I understand."

"Good." I lost a friend that day but gained a soldier. Or at leas the makings of one. And with that in mind, it was well worth it.

The next day, he had his hounds patched and our tank crew was called to gather in the tent of Major General Zand where he placed a map of Ba Sign Se with a solid red line going around the North of Ba Sing Se to a point labeled 'The Dragon's Camp.' I knew what was happening and I knew that now more than ever, we wouldn't need friends. No. We needed soldiers. Friends don't survive war. Only soldiers do.

Major General Zand sat us down and pointed to the map. Before he even spoke, I knew that this would be Gi Gu's real test. And I prayed, for his sake and ours, that he would pass it.

Zand spoke and set us out on our next task. "I have a mission for you."


	26. Chapter 24: Journey to the Dragon's Camp

**Luke**

We left that evening. We had no idea what to expect. We left with only one objective with the minimal amount of information possible. Leave at dusk. Drive north of the city. Stay out of sight. Get to the Eastern mountains. Go south and get to Iroh's camp. It wasn't much to go off of, but we knew what we had to do and that we didn't have much time.

It was pitch black outside, not a sound in the world save out tank. We kept the lights off inside to avoid attracting wandering eyes and kept noise as low as possible, despite the noise of the engine. I saw Gi Gu sleeping in his seat, understandably so given the time in the night. Me, I couldn't sleep. I could back at camp, but not here. Not in the middle of the job. I remembered all too well what happened the last time that I hadn't paying attention. I wasn't going to make the same mistake this time around. I looked outside the viewport ahead of me and couldn't see any sign of where we were. It was when I opened the hatch above me and poked my head outside that I was finally able to see the black wall of Ba Sing Se, towering to the south to our left. There was no moonlight to illuminate it. Merely the difference between black and blacker. The sea, although a distance, was to our right. In the tank, you would think you were being heard for miles judging by the noise it generated, but, by some miracle, we hadn't been found. Yet.

I closed my hatch and turned to face where Gan was sitting at the controls of the tank, safely buckled into his seat, probably as tired and sleep deprived as me. We had slept back at camp, waking up only 10 minutes before it was time to leave. Still, It hadn't been enough.

"Want me to take over?" I offered.

"No. Thanks though. I'm good."

"You probably going to want me to take over later on?"

"Probably not. No fault of yours, but I'm not very keen on letting anybody drive this thing aside from me anymore."

My eyes instinctively wandered to the dreaming Gi Gu, safely buckled into his seat. I would say he didn't have a care in the world, but he was different this morning. Or yesterday morning depending on the time. He seemed less…cheery, I guess. Not that he'd ever been cheery, but he just seemed, more serious. I didn't know what to call it.

"Yeah. Understood. Still. Some sleep might do you good."

"It's going to be a while before I sleep out here. I get the feeling it's going to be the same for you."

"Probably so. Knowing how our enemy just loves to hide and pop out when we least fucking expect it, it's a good idea to have as many eyes as possible on the road at all times."

"Couldn't agree more, though I recommend sleeping. We have a long drive ahead. We should get past the wall by around dawn. From then, it's into the mountains, out of sight of the sea and the wall, and we go south along the river until we get to the Serpent's lake, and we head East to Iroh's camp. We'll be there by around this time tomorrow at this pace."

This time tomorrow. That was a long time without sleeping.

"Think we have the supplies to last that long?"

"Well, we stocked up on water, 3 meals for each of us, and we got a crossbow, 50 bolts, 3 personal short swords, and a firebender. So assuming we don't get attacked by a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers older or larger than us, we should be fine."

"Assuming we do end up fighting, if we're lucky, we won't be immobilized. We'll be faster, stronger, and heavily armored. We could at least take some down with us."

"If it comes to that, then I imagine we will, but frankly, I'm hoping it doesn't and we actually do manage to make it to the Dragon's camp."

"Why's he even called that?" It was a question I've had for a long time. I've always heard of him being referred to as 'the Dragon' but had never gotten any justification as to why. I knew it wasn't important, but I was going to be stuck in this tank for another day, so I may as well get something out of it.

"He killed the last Dragon. In the Fire Nation, they would reward you with the title of "Dragon" for killing one. It was a symbol of prestige and might. Well, turns out, in the Fire Nation, they love that kind of shit. So, Lou and behold, the Dragons started getting killed. The esteemed heir to the throne took it upon himself to earn the title of Dragon before it was too late, and he killed the last dragon on Earth. Some even claim he killed the last two."

"How do you know this?"

"Parents would tell me all about it. Said that I wouldn't just be a soldier, but I would be a hero, like him, when, eventually, I was old enough to be a soldier." He gave out a small cynical chuckle and said, "That day sure came sooner than they expected."

"What'd they say about you being deployed?"

"Probably a lot. I wouldn't know. They wouldn't let us see them after word of our deployment got out. Shame too. They missed my birthday."

"Really? When was it?"

"4 days ago. Same day as our little foray."

"Happy birthday."

"Thanks. Sucks to nearly get killed on your birthday though."

"If anything, it's pretty good. You avoided near death on your birthday."

"Well, when you look at it like that, I can't deny my luck."

"What did you wish for?"

"Why would I tell you? If I do, it won't come true."

"Oh please. That's dumb."

"Oh, Shut up. I'm fighting a kingdom of people that desperately want to kill me. Let me keep a little childish enthusiasm with me."

"Ugh. Fine. Suit yourself. At least tell me if you made your wish before or after the battle."

"Heh. Before."

I fell back into my seat, wishing I had heard the opposite of what I did. "Ah Shit."

"What?"

"You wished for a chance to prove yourself on the field, didn't you? Son of a bitch."

"Fuck. It's that obvious?"

"Hell yeah it is. We were unexperienced kids who had been waiting around for weeks in a battlefield without seeing so much as an enemy soldier. Of course you would wish for something like that."

"Oh. And you wouldn't have?"

"Of course I would have! We were all waiting for the same exact damn thing. Well, congratulations, you got your wish!"

"Hey, yell louder while you're at it. Last thing I need is Gi Gu waking up and asking if we're there yet before we get our heads taken off by a flying rock."

I sank back down into my seat, sighing. "What's up with him, anyway?"

"Who? Gi Gu?"

"Yeah. He seemed, different. This morning."

"Gi Gu seemed different, huh? Stop the fucking presses."

"Just. More serious. Did you say something?"

"What do you mean, did I say something?"

"I'm just asking if you talked to him about that day. Maybe told him how to better prepare for something like that."

There was a pause as he seemed looked ahead of himself, into the empty night, until he replied with, "Yeah. I guess I did say something like that. Don't worry. He won't be a problem anymore."

"I hope so. I'm not particularly fond of the idea of getting into another situation like that last time."

"Yeah." Gan replied. "Neither am I."

 **General Iroh**

Lu Ten was already gone. On his way to rain fire on those Earth Bender infested mountains. And with any look, when they were done, we could send our own men through to Zahckrael's camp and finally figure out how to get this siege started. It's been over a year of waiting and not a dent has been made in that wall. My cheery personality and Lu Ten's inspiring persona could only do so much for morale. Our men were tired. They wanted to go home, and this situation was seeming to be more and more hopeless by the day.

I was apprehensive at first, but Lu Ten had the right idea. A direct confrontation with the enemy. My own fear for his life got in the way of my seeing that. The men need a victory. A sign that this is a very real fight that we have to win. They need the boost. When Lu Ten got back, and his scouts made it through the mountains, I would give him permission to attack the listening post. We would have cleared both sides of the cities and we would distribute our men to fully surround it. At least the southern side. I wasn't so foolish as to try to occupy the northern edge. The Northern Water Tribe would only harass us until we were broken or dead.

Then, once this siege was under control, and I knew how to proceed, it would be to deal with this cursed letter. I had received 27 messenger hawks from Citadel all with the same message.

 _There is a suspected Air Nation terrorist within the new arrivals of the 15_ _th_ _Armored Division. Unknown if possessing air bending. He is brown of hair and gray of eye. Approximately 12 years old. Restrain him and deliver him to me for interrogation and delivery to Fire Lord Azulon. For the Fire Lord, for the Fire Nation._

He wanted me to fix his mistakes and then send the air bender, air nomad, whatever he was, back to him to take the credit. I didn't care for the credit of capturing an Air Nomad. The public already believed I ended one species. I saw no reason to be known for ending another, but if this was true, if this was an Air Nomad, it could be what we've been searching for during the last 96 years: The Avatar. The only true threat to the Fire Nation.

I would order my men to be ready when we did eventually march to join with the 5th Corps. I would have to navigate carefully. Judging by the number of hawks I received, I had reason to believe he sent them to me and me only. So, Warden Zar'un didn't want Zahckrael knowing about his prize. I sighed. I was getting tired of the politics and the deceit that came with power. You wouldn't recognize it by looking at me in my advanced age, but I wasn't alive before the Fire Nation began its conquest, but I knew of what life was like. We were content, satisfied with our islands and our wealth, feeling no need to spread it to others by force. It was a noble idea, yes, to share our fortune with the rest of the world, but there was a stark contrast between peaceful charity, and aggressive imperialism. Unfortunately, few of us managed to see the difference anymore.

There as progress being made to help, as slow as it was. This war would have to end, of course, and it wouldn't come through a mutual understanding of peace and serenity, no. All sides of this war were too far gone to acknowledge the possibility of such. This war would have to be won, and a Fire Nation victory would mean less death and suffering for all. Then, work could be made to change the Fire Nation. Make it better than it ever was. Those who agreed with me were few, but we were present. The White Lotus could make a difference.

For now, however, there was a war to be won. When it was, then, we could work towards a better future. But for now, it was on to the battlefield. It was dawn and my son would be getting to the mountains soon. And when he did, the first step would be taken to ending this long and fruitless war.

 **Luke**

I was awake through the entire night. Didn't catch a second of sleep. Was too afraid to even try shutting my eyes for over a minute. The wall was finally behind us. The hard part was over. Our intelligence told us the mountains would be a breeze to get through. Our tanks were built for rough terrain and as we went through the mountains, we would be completely out of sight of the city and the sea.

The night had gone by surprisingly easily. The closest we got to being spotted was the sight of a water tribe war ship to the north of us, it's lights shining against the sea. Normally, that would be a dumb idea, shining your lights on a pitch-black night, but this far north, I doubted they had anything to fear. We on the other hand, well, it was quite the opposite for us. We had a constant need to be vigilant and to tread lightly. Hopefully that would be different in the mountains.

We reached the mountains not long after. An hour later, we were travelling through them. The roads were rocky, but at the very least, there were roads. They were untreaded however, didn't seem to have been in a while. We were alone.

Not 5 minutes after that, did we realize how wrong we were. It started with just a few small rocks falling down the side of the cliff. I was taking in the fresh air, sticking out of the tank as I saw those rocks come down. I looked up, expecting to find some a wild puma goat or something along those lines. Needless to say. I didn't. I saw a perfectly round disk of solid earth come rushing towards me. I felt it graze my air as I ducked soon enough, avoiding the selfsame piece of earth that removed the tank's hatch from its metallic body. The fight was about to begin, and I was completely exposed.

The hard rock trail underneath us turned to sand and we found our tank being listing to its starboard side as it went with the now soft ground, falling into the ravine below. Gan, somehow, was quicker than the falling earth and fired off the tank's first grappling hook, sending it digging into the side of the rock face ahead of us. I was now completely strapped into my seat and more conscious than ever of my completely exposed top. As Gan retracted the hook, pulling us closer to the wall we were attached to, I looked above me, which wasn't so much above but to the right considering our tank was still at a sharp angle, I saw rock in the side of the mountain next to us suddenly part like a palace door as an earth bender appeared out of his abode, reaching out to no doubt collapse the piece of ground our hook was attached to. I didn't give him the chance. I sent a blast of fire directly above me, straight towards him. I couldn't see if it hit. We were moving too fast for me to get a look, but our hook held its place in the ground. Even if I hadn't hit him, I had given us the time we needed.

We were completely vertical, bow of the tank facing the sky. The blood was rushing to my head and I braced for the momentary impact I knew was sure to come. "Gi Gu!" Gan yelled. "Cut the hook!"

I saw Gi Gu leave the trance he was in, the same shock he had had last time and shoot into action. He nodded and pulled the lever to cut the hook and we fell onto the path underneath us. We rolled along the edge of the mountain and landed straight on the thin trail with minimal difficulty. Gan readjusted us to continue along the trail and as I raised myself to see the world around us, I saw more and more earth benders appear out of the walls, out of the grounds, out of thin air itself. We were surrounded. There were more earth benders than there were us, all of them trained, all of us not.

That last stand me, and Gan had been talking about. This was it. I lowered my seat, unbuckled my harness as we rolled along the path, taking hits on either side of us from flying projectiles and reached for the crossbow in the back.

"Gi Gu!" I yelled. "You know how to use this?"

"I-uh."

"Do you know how to us this?!"

"Ye-Yes. I do."

"Good. Then get in the back, open the trunk, and cover me."

He nodded. "Got it."

He grabbed the crossbow and rushed to the back. He was ready.

As he left his seat to retreat to the storage compartment in the back, opening the trunk to get a firing angle at those behind us, I rushed up to my seat, strapping myself back in, ready to give the Earth Kingdom a fight before we all went straight to hell.

The tank made a sharp turn on the path we were following, but the benders pursued after us, using pieces of the mountains as mounts, bending them along the mountain sides, keeping us in hot pursuit. When I saw a break in the rocks as they were too busy trying to get ahead of us, I took my chance. I poked my upper body out of the tank, raising my seat, and saw the bender across the ravine to our left and fired. The fire missed him but struck the earth beneath it. To much or the bender to retain focus on, the earth crumbled beneath him and he fell. He would recover quickly, but at least he was off our tail for the moment.

To the mountain wall to our right, I saw another bender, about 20 feet above me, directly atop the tank. I fired straight above me and the blast took him by surprise. He fell, the earth crumbling beneath him. I ducked into the tank, avoiding at least some of the debris as well as the soldier as they fell on top of the tank, promptly sliding off.

Back inside the tank, I could see Gi Gu, crouched in the cargo hold, crossbow trained behind us, waiting for the slightest movement. I raised my seat once more and saw a cloud of dust form behind us as a piece of the mountain shot off like a rocket, out coming a squad of 5 earth benders, moving the ground underneath them, forming a wave of rock and soil, coming straight towards us.

I fired a blast, hoping to break the wave underneath them, but to no avail, they were too focused on it. I diverted my attention to the benders, sending a blast that knocked one of the soldiers off of the wave into the ravine to our left, surely killing them. I prepared to make a second hit, but our tank made a sudden turn and my shot was thrown off. The path was shifting underneath us, I saw then. Gan was giving it all he had to stay on the path that the Earth benders were constantly altering with they're terraforming activities.

I prepared to fire a second blast, but the bender I was aiming for went down before I got the chance. I barely had time to notice the steel crossbow bolt that had sunk itself into his chest. He went down behind the wave, dead at Gi Gu's hands. I couldn't help but smile, but it was short lived. The wave was abandoned, and it crumbled in a pile of dust and smoke. It wasn't the end of those troubles, however. The benders jumped to the sides of the mountains, on both sides of us. The one to our right were the immediate concern. The ones on the other side of the ravine were a concern for later.

They were out of Gi Gu's range, but I still had a shot on them. I fired a blast of fire that the nearest bender managed to avoid, hopping off of his rock transport, sending it directly towards the tank with a direct kick. I unbuckled my harness and ducked into the tank as the rock exploded against the top off the tank, sending dust, dirt, and rock into the tank's interior. The tank shook, nearly sending us into the ravine on our left. Gan, as I saw now in the confined is the tank myself, was fighting the controls, putting down the break as he drifted to a halt, stopping us from going off the edge, only to resume our movement a second after, now back on track. I turned to Gi Gu and saw as he put a crossbow bolt into the earth bender that had just jumped off of his rock. That meant only 2 pursuers left, but that wouldn't be the end of it, not by a long shot. There were still 2 earth benders to our left across the ravine. I got back into my seat, buckled in, and prepared to fire until they stopped first, making my shot miss in front of them, breaking against the solid rock wall. The 2 benders, in one simultaneous movement, made a motion that I failed to understand the significance of until I faced what was in front of us, only to see the earth forming a hole directly in front of us as if leading straight to hell.

Gan brought the tank to a halt, sliding to face our port side directly towards the 2 earth benders that had just opened a passageway straight to hell. Gan fired the reserve grappling hook. The hook flew, across the ravine, straight towards the 2 earth benders who had thought us dead for sure. The hook slammed into their rock platform, breaking it on impact, going right through, digging itself into the mountain wall as the earth benders went falling into their self-made hades. I heard the door to the cargo bay where Gi Gu was slam shut as he knew what was about to happen.

Gan retracted the hook right as the earth failed underneath us in the domino effect of the now deceased earth benders' actions. The tank was then airborne, being pulled to across a ravine I didn't care to gauge the side of. There was a passage down there. A small one, yes, but there was a passage. We slammed against the leftmost mountain and Gan turned around to face me.

"See the ravine down there?"

"Yes!"

"I'm going to detach!"

"The path's too small and the slope of the mountains against us! We'll miss!"

"Then correct us!"

"Wait. What?"

Gan cut the connection and we were falling. I didn't have time to consider what he meant. We needed to hug the left wall and stay as close to it as possible, but we were drifting off and would go flying into the bottomless pit until we could stay as far to our left as possible. There was no time to think. I faced the direction of the ravine and with the fear of sudden death on my mind, channeled my fear and pushed. The fire came out in a brilliant blaze, shooting us to our left, bringing us scraping against the left side of the mountain. I kept the blaze of fire going, keeping us where we had to be until we were down on the path, still alive. I let the fire die and suddenly remembered that I had a heart and it was beating too fast for me to count/

The day, however, wasn't close to being done. On the edge of the ravine, surrounding us, were more earth benders, now gathering on the edges watching us, straight below them. "Shit."

I wondered if they would bury us alive, break the path beneath us, having us fall to our deaths, or close the ravine above us and let us figure out which way we preferred on our own. Those thoughts, however, were interrupted by the explosion that erupted directly on the edge of the ravine, sending tens of them flailing and flying into the darkness of the ravine.

"The hell?"

Then a second explosion came, then a third, and a fourth. Explosions everywhere. Some hitting targets, some not. Nonetheless, it was what we needed. The Earth benders were pulling back, some hiding inside the mountains, some leaving altogether, and Gan took the chance. He accelerated forward, hugging the left wall, afraid to have us all fall to our deaths, and went up the path getting us out of that ravine back onto solid land.

Now, it wasn't the Earth Benders we had to avoid, it was the fire. Explosions sounded of all around us as we and earth benders alike fled for cover, too busy to engage one another in combat. Our vehicle sped along the cratering ground, seeking to leave the kill zone of the artillery fire that I was still busy debating over whether or not it was meant for us.

I was ducking down into the tank, wary of a god's wrath that was making itself more than known in this very moment. I felt a shake in the tank as we lurched to the side and I felt the tank list to one side. I expected an imminent recovery, but we were angled, nearly lying on our starboard side. Our right treads were gone. I was wondering whether it had been artillery or an earth bender and got my answer when I looked above me and saw the fully armored Earth Kingdom serjeant approaching us, gathering earth in his hands, pulling it up from the ground, preparing a weapon to end our lives. I shot a blast of fire directly at him, but he used his newfound possessions to create a shield directly in front of him, absorbing the blast.

"Guys!" I yelled. "Get out, now!"

I fired another blast, hoping to distract the bender, giving Gi Gu a chance to open his door and sneak out, but when he tried, the earth bender sent a disk of earth directly towards the rear doors, knocking them straight off, indicating he very clear fault in attempting such a thing again. Now, though, we were trapped. Gi Gu leaned out to take a shot, but another shot of rocks knocked the crossbow straight out of his hands, giving him a rather large gash across his arm in the process.

The next attack was aimed directly towards me. I readied a blast of fire to try to break his weapon in his hands before he got the chance to use it. He fired, and I fired. My blast of fire hit his boulder in the air, exploding it on contact, sending the shards of earth directly towards me. I lowered my head, covering my face, but the shards still hit me, cutting me along the arm and torso, sending me back against the side of the tank that was now completely resting on its right side. I made one final effort to gather my strength and make a stand, but to no avail. I readied myself for the last attack and hoped it would be quick.

I tried to close my eyes but couldn't. I could only stare death straight in the eyes. I saw it approach me, lift its rock, smile, and get hit by the shell of artillery that blew him into a thousand tiny pieces. That very next second, I was covered in blood, who's, I couldn't know. He was dead.

I leaned back into the seat and sighed as the sound of the explosions around us finally came to a halt. Was it over?

I heard Gan cough to my left from the driver's seat as he crawled out, coughing fiercely. "You all okay?!" he yelled.

I looked to Gi Gu who was looking at his future scar and finally looked at my own injuries: a gash across my right shoulder, a cut on my left forearm, and multiple smaller cuts form debris on my torso and legs. "We're alright. Is it over?"

Gan crawled next to me and out of the tank's hatch, looking around, listening for the next artillery blast that never came. "I think. I think it's over."

I leaned back into my seat and gave a sigh of relief. We were alive.

"Didn't they say the mountains were fucking safe?!" I finally asked.

I didn't know if it was a cough or a chuckle, but soon enough, the three of us were laughing at the extraneous possibility of 'unreliable military intelligence.'

Soon enough, the laughter had died down, when we suddenly heard the shifting of rocks to our left followed by "Oh shit. Did we hit them?"

I followed Gan out the tank, ready to fire a blast at the new approaches as Gan and Gi Gu gabbed their short swords. I was out of the tank, facing the newcomers, flame ready in hand when the leader of the group, a Fire Nation Lieutenant Colonel, raised his hands saying "Woah. Take it easy. We're your guys. Who the hell are you?"

I tried to talk, coughing first, sending a fresh cloud of dust off of my face and said "We're the messengers. I assume you're the recipients?"

He chuckled as the rest of his men came over the hill in front of us, a full battalion of Fire Nation soldiers, and said "I guess we are. You just made our job a hell of a lot easier. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ten. Congratulations. Your mission was a success."


	27. Chapter 25: The Dragon's Camp

**Luke**

"Well." Lu Ten spoke. "I say it's a damn good time to get going. Artillery sent the Earth Kingdom hiding into the mountains, but it won't last. The rumbling in the ground of artillery will stop, they'll notice before even the gunners know, and we'll be in one hell of a predicament."

I looked to Gi Gu who was still staring intently at his injuries and then at Gan, who at first had seemed fine. Now, however, when he made an attempt to stand, he fell right back to the ground, grumbling curses. His leg was broken. Must've gotten busted dup in the crash. GI Gu and I were good to walk, but I couldn't say the same for Gan.

I looked back to our savior, the battalion leader, Lu Ten, who stood in front of us and asked, "You have any way to carry him?", motioning to Gan. "Don't think he's good to walk."

"I can call a truck up here to carry him."

"So you have trucks?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Think you can tow our tank? Our commander would be pissed if we left it behind."

Lu Ten looked past me towards the tank that Gan was leaning against for support. The look on his face was of hesitation, so I made an additional claim. "Don't want the Earth Kingdom getting their hands on our tech, right? Even if we do burn the hell out of it to prevent recovery, that's a good Fire Nation tank gone to history."

"I wouldn't call it good in the condition it's in. Right treads are completely busted."

"It's repairable. If you're willing to call a truck to pick up our buddy, then surely you could tow a vehicle far more worth than any of us."

Lu Ten gave me a look that I couldn't decipher as good or bad until he smiled and laughed, saying "Well, when you put it like that, how could I possibly refuse? We'll tow your tank. Just get the hook on your tank ready to attach."

"Yeah. About that. We kind of used it."

"Then use the reserve."

"We kinda used that one too. Navigating these mountains isn't as easy as it seems."

"Yeah." He said softly, looking behind me to the far range of mountains now finally behind us. "I bet. No worries. We'll get a hook for you. Just hold tight and I'll have a tank up here in 5 minutes."

5 minutes went by quickly and soon enough, an automobile of the likes of which I've never seen before was backing up in front of our tank as two soldiers attached a hook from the rear of the truck onto the bow of the tank. The truck, an uncovered flatbed, lurched forward, giving the chain a tug to check its security, and was satisfied enough to carry on.

Lu Ten climbed onto the back of the truck, motioning for me and Gi Gu to follow as he pulled Gan up by the arm, accepting thanks from the crippled soldier who promptly sat down on one of the seats on the trucks bed with only a small 3-foot-high wall acting as a barrier, preventing both people and supplies form falling over.

Lu Ten walked to the front of the bed, took a whistle out of his pouch and blew, soon after yelling "Crimson Battalion! Back to the Dragon's Camp! Move out!" He knocked on the driver's canopy of the truck and along with the rest of the men and vehicles of the "Crimson" battalion, the truck began moving forward. And just like that, we were on our way, leaving those god forsaken mountains behind us. If anything, that experience made me all the more dedicated to making sure we took that listening post out. Because there was no way in hell I was going through the mountains again.

We drove for a while, passing by the field of war. Gi Gu and Gan were asleep, bleeding wounds having sealed as well as mine. Me, I didn't sleep despite the exhaustion that was prevailing. I hadn't slept in over a day but doubted I would be able to get any rest until we were back at camp. So instead, I looked at the field of war around us. You could tell that some areas of the Earth Kingdom still hadn't been touched by the fighting as much as others. Particularly those mountains. I suspected that artillery bombardment we just went through was the first of its kind. As we drove, however, going further south, the decay of the land from untouched to war torn became ever apparent. Craters showed up, burnt out woods that had been touched by Fire and Fire Nation alike showed up. Lu Ten must've seen the look I was giving the lands as he said, "I guess this area's been a lot more hit than wherever you're camped."

"Or at least the Earth did a better job of hiding our handiwork than here. We found an entire division buried underneath the ground as we dug our trenches."

"Damn. You know what division?"

"106th I think. Have friends there? Or, _had_ friends there?"

"No. Still. When we lost contact with the 15th, we were positive the siege would be over. For the siege to work, we need men on the Southwestern and Northeastern front. And constant communication between the two. Maybe now that we know your corps is in position, I can convince my father to launch an attack on the listening post and restore communication."

"Who's your father?"

"General Iroh. Or, the Dragon of the West. Which ether you prefer."

"Oh shit." I tried standing up to salute, or bow, or something, but the motion of the tank just sent me back onto the ground of the truck.

"What?" Lu Ten asked.

"I just realized, I forgot to salute a senior officer, but no, you're royalty. Do I salute royalty or do I-?"

"Relax. I'm not like the other hoity toity officers. It's nice not being recognized for a change."

"Really?" I asked, sitting back down on the bench, across from the Prince of the Fire Nation. "If I were you, I'd feel kind of pissed if somebody didn't recognize me."

"It makes more sense when you're in a position of power, I guess. After so long getting talked to as a superior rather than an equal, it gets boring. So thank for those few minutes of equality. I expect it'll get back to normal now."

"If it makes you feel better, the other guys in my crew don't know who you are. You can go through the same exact thing with them twice over."

He chuckled. "Good. I feel so much better now." There was a pause. "What did you say your name was?"

"Luke."

"Luke? Weird name. Don't hear that very often. Who were parents?"

"I'd tell you if I knew."

"An orphan?"

"Straight out of Citadel."

"Damn. Not a fun place to be raised."

"No it is not."

There was a pause. "So tell me, what was your plan?"

"Sorry?"

"Your plan. There was only one tank going through those damn mountains. Were there more of you before or-?"

"Actually. It was just us. Our commander thought it'd be safer that way and we didn't know the mountains were occupied."

"Military intelligence, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm starting to get accustomed to the stereotype."

"Sorry to say, but it only gets worse. Here's some advice, if you hear that an area is clear, just tell yourself that it means its heavily mined or prepped for ambush. That way, you never walk into a situation you can't get out of."

"Good to know. Maybe if we had enough equipment or men to prepare for what we just went through, we would've done that."

"Yeah, well. Think of it this way. You and your crew single handedly navigated those mountains and saved this siege. You have one or two promotions coming your ways. That means new equipment and maybe even an assignment. Have to say, you'd probably be the youngest person to lead soldiers of the Fire Nation."

"That's a nice thought, but it wasn't me who got us through those mountains. That was my driver, Gan over there. The one with the broken leg."

"Gotta say then, he's one hell of a driver."

"And then some. He's already gotten us out of some tight spots in the past. Wouldn't want to lose him. You got good doctors back at camp?"

"I wouldn't call them good. Or doctors for that matter, but we'll get him patched up."

"Thanks."

"Don't sweat it."

"So, why the artillery?"

"In the mountains?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's just say we had the same job. We were to bombard the mountains for a while, send the earth benders into their holes, and send over 50 messengers through the mountains once the artillery stopped to make it to your camp. Thank to you, however, they don't have to put their lives at risk for that. Sorry for nearly killing you with that artillery, though."

"It's no problem. I've been through worse."

"Have you now?"

"Yep. And I fully expect to go through worse as this war goes on. So you think my coming will get the Dragon of the West to launch an attack on the listening camp?"

"I know so. My dad suspected you were in position but had no such proof. He refused to risk lives to opening a line of communications to an army that may or may not have even been there."

"Well. You could say we're not really there. We arrive a bit north of where we intended. That may also be a reason for shitty communication."

"I see. Well, we'll just have you explain it to the General when we get back to camp."

"How long have you been here?"

"Over a year now. We've already cut off food shipments into the city from all avenues expect the north, but from what I hear, the north pole isn't all that fertile, so the only food coming in is fish, and by no means enough to feed that entire city. So, they're starving. Slowly, but still starving."

"Got any expectation for the siege?"

"Well. Now that we know the 5th Corps is in position, we can make the first real move and reclaim that blasted listening post. We'll set up small camps ranging from here to your camp and we'll be in a much better position to bring this city down."

"How about with those walls? Any thoughts on those?"

"We've tried a lot of things from firebending to newer artillery. We're leaving our marks, but the benders always manage to repair them the second we stop firing. What we need is more men, which we finally have now that the 5th Corps has entered the fray. We can have nonstop artillery rain fire on the wall and beyond, opening up time for tanks to scale the walls, plants explosives, and bring it down."

"You think that'll work?"

"I really have no idea. I'm just saying what we haven't tried yet. Whether it'll work or not is up to the spirits at this point. Hey. When was the last time you slept?"

"Why-Why do you ask?"

"Your eyes are closed so either I'm boring the hell out of you, or you haven't slept in days."

I hadn't even realized my eyes were closed and I had just been listening to him talk. "Unfortunately", I said, "it's the latter."

"Then get some shut eye. It's around a 5-hour march back to camp and you'll need your energy when you talk to the General of the Fire Nation army."

I didn't have the energy to consider what that meant for me. I just put it aside and closed my eyes."

 **Corporal Danev**

I sat at the table in the platoon barracks, cards facing me and me only. Across the table from me was a young Private Zurang, a fellow recruit from Citadel, as full of shit now as he was then. "I call."

I placed my cards on the table. A straight Fire Flush. I heard the cheers around me as they as well as I knew that the game had already been won. Zurang's smile on his face thinned as he receives sympathetic pats on the back from those behind him who had been following the game from his side.

I eyed the jackpot in the center of the table, paying particular attention to a nice ornamented dagger that Private Zurang had received for his 14th birthday. I reached forward for it first until I heard the slam on the table and saw his hand. _No._

"Royal Flush, Danev." He said, smile back on his face. "Better luck next time.

 _No. My pay for this month. I had to get out of this. Think, Danev. Think._

"You're under arrest, Private Zurang."

"What?"

"For illegal gambling of Fire Nation salary and equipment."

"You were the one who asked me to!"

"This was a sting operation. And you walked right into it." The fellow soldiers of the 31st platoon were laughing around me as they witnessed my feeble attempt to pull rank on an inferior.

"You can't pull rank on me like this! You're a- "

"Corporal, as of yesterday if you recall. If you wish to avoid imprisonment for unlawful activities, then you will return all gambled possessions back to their rightful owners."

Private Zurang shook his head, but realized he was beat. He pushed my half of the jackpot back towards me and said, "Fuck you."

"Excuse me!"

"Fuck you, sir!"

"That's better. I may be your superior, but that doesn't make me entirely honest. I'll also take a bribe."

That sent the mess hall into a roar of laughter and sarcastic applause as Zurang sent a portion of his pay towards my pile. _So maybe I got something out of today after all._

"That'll be all, private." _I'll get that dagger another day._

"Attention!" I heard from a soldier in the hall near the entrance. "Major General on Deck!"

I grabbed my pouch and shoveled my" gamblings" into my bag as quickly as I could and saluted the Major General who had somehow missed my "illicit" activities.

"At ease." He said. He walked to the table where Zurang's money still sat sloppily on the table and said, "Who's money is this?"

Nobody answered.

"Fine then. Suit yourself. If you won't claim the money on the table then It'll just be returned to the Fire Nation treasury from whence it came."

I waited to see if Zurang's greed would overcome him, but it overcame Private Zom'aik first who exclaimed "It's mine, sir!"

The money was already gone at that point, anybody could see it. So as Major General Zor'ak pushed through the crowd to get to Zom'aik, I swiped the dagger from the pile and handed it to Private Zurang who, with a surprised look on his face, quickly realized that my pulling rank on him wasn't personal, and accepted his personal dagger with a nod that said "Thank you"

I nodded back and returned to where I was standing before, hearing the last bits of Zom'aik's humiliation before admitting the money wasn't his. I pitied Zurang for the money he would lose today. I'd give him back the "bribe" he had given me in hopes it would pull him over.

I was a Corporal now, promoted yesterday for "heroic behavior" in the latest raid of an Earth Kingdom homestead. I didn't pass up the promotion and the pay increase despite the bullshit reasoning behind it. I commanded no men, but I could order those under me around and force them to salute me when I wished, so, all in all, it was pretty good.

"Now!" Major General Zor'ak announced. "If there will be no further interruptions, may I ask why none of you are in uniform?"

"Because we're not awaiting order, sir!" I exclaimed. It wasn't talking back. It was a proper answer. The commander of the division wasn't always aware of the working of the smaller platoons. They sometimes required direct answers from the men themselves. Sometimes, however, it was rhetorical.

"Well you do now!" You an all of the 107th Company will be deployed tomorrow morning to head west. It is unlikely that Zand and his scouts for the 15th Armored will have survived." That made me wince. "But we will survive, and we will succeed where they failed, but we will not waste time roaming through the mountains. We will take the listening post, restore communication, and bring this siege back up to speed. Am I understood?!"

"Sir yes sir!" we replied in one voice.

"Good. Then get some rest. We leave at midnight."

And with that, he was gone. "Sounds like another off-the-books engagement" I heard Zurang say from behind me. "It was small at first, just small households and farms, but this, the listening post?" exclaimed the voice of Dazni. "He's getting eager."

"It doesn't matter." Another voice, Zihe, said. "I'm looking forward to a good fight, anyway."

And we'd get one. Because tonight, we left for our first real battle. And if Citadel taught me anything, that wasn't something to look forward to. I looked around the mess hall and observed the men of the 31st platoon. A Company of 200 men to take a listening post untouched for months. I looked around one last time before heading off to my bunk for some now needed rest and wondered how many of them would be back here this time tomorrow.

 **Prince Iroh, Heir Apparent of the Fire Nation**

I hovered over the map for what felt like the 5th hour today, in reality, just waiting for Lu Ten to come through the tent flaps. And eventually he did, and I was forced to hide my relief, and act the General. "Did you send the messengers?" I asked, waiting for the "Yes" I knew I would get. He was the model soldier. Never failed a single assignment in his career. Until today, apparently.

"No, father."

"What?"

"We didn't send the messengers. The messengers came to us. Men from the 5th Corps, 15th armored."

"So they've arrived."

"Yes. And they're here to make sure we take out that listening post and get the siege together."

I sighed. Ever since we learned of the listening post having been taken, it was all Lu Ten would talk about. Now the smile on his face was obvious. He was about to get his wish and I would have no choice but to send him to do the job."

"Very well. Send him in."

And in he came, but not the messenger my son spoke of. My mind went to the description I had read in the messenger hawk's letter. Brown of hair and gray of eye, approximately 12 years of age. The alleged spy that Zar'un had spoken of, and he had come right to me. I prepared to call for security to apprehend the child, but then saw that my son wasn't giving me a spy. He wasn't handing me a leak. Did my son know? Did he realize what he had? Or was I wrong? Was it the faith in my son's eyes that discouraged me from taking that drastic step or was it the look in the child's light gray eyes that did it. I didn't know what it was, but something told me not to call for security and to listen to what he had to say.

"Thank you, Lu Ten." I said. "You may go."

"Yes father." He bowed and left.

Once my son left, the gray eyes boy seemed lost, mid-way between a salute and a bow, or was it a kneel? In time, he made up his mind, and kneeled. His guess was right. Somehow, he knew the formality of greeting Fire Nation royalty, despite some lack of confidence in his movements. Nonetheless, it wasn't something I expected of an Air Nomad spy.

"Rise." I said. "This is a military base, not a throne room."

He rose, nodding, still seemingly unsure of where he was or why. In some ways, I pitied him for the uncomfortable situation he found himself in. I couldn't let that pity grow, however. If this was the scout my son promised, he had information I needed to know, and if he was the spy Zar'un promised, he was a threat to the Fire Nation. Who did I trust more?

"I presume you're the scout sent by the 15th then?" I asked.

"Yes, sir, your grace."

I smiled, empathizing with hm more and more with each passing minute. He already reminded me of my son when he was his age. No. I can't let that get in the way.

"Report, then."

"Uh. Yeah. Okay. So. The 15th Corps is here. Well, not here here, but north of here. Northeast. A bit more north than where we're supposed to be."

"You're saying you aren't where you're supposed to be stationed?"

"Yes sir."

I sighed. Yeah. That was Zahckrael, all right. "How many of you are there?"

"5000. 1000 armored, 4000 infantry."

Not even half the size of what they should be at. They were grossly outnumbered.

"And why were you sent here?"

"The listening post between you and us is occupied by the enemy. We've already lost a good amount of men trying to retake it. They sent us north of here, between the city and the coast and through the mountains to get a message to you saying, well, we're here."

He got through the mountains?

"How many of you were sent?"

"Just one tank sir. We're all fine though we took some hits."

And just one tank.

"And what does Lieutenant General Zahckrael want then?"

"Well sir, he wants to get this siege going, but for that, we need to take that listening post."

"Your words or his?"

"Anyone with sense to realize if we don't organize our men, we're going to be here a lot longer, and a warning sign to the next army that comes to replace us."

I smiled, trying to prevent myself from laughing, but failed. Soon, I was laughing. This kid was older than he seemed, at least in terms of his mind. "Very well then, messenger. Your mission was a success. We'll take that listening post."

"That's great! When?"

"Tomorrow morning. Get your wounds patched up and get some rest. The real siege for Ba Sing Se begins tomorrow."

I didn't know how, but somewhere between him coming through that tent flap and him leaving, I'd made a decision to take a risk I never would have. Was Zar'un wrong? He had to be. That kid couldn't be a spy. And, well, if he was, he was darn good at hiding it. There was a mistake, obviously. There can't be only one child in this world with brown hair and gray eyes, right? This couldn't be who I thought he was. If he was, well, if he was, then I was a darned fool.


	28. Chapter 26: Battle of the Listening Post

**Luke**

The soldiers were mobilizing. Already. Just like that. If this was Zahckrael's camp, if we were told we would be heading to a fight in a week, we would still be unprepared. I just left the Dragon's tent last evening and the men were already moving out.

It was the morning. There would be a fight today. A big one too. I could see the gray clouds despite the dark of the morning night. It was probably going to rain. That wouldn't be good on the field. Earth Benders can work more with mud than firebenders can. _And what if they have water benders too? I shouldn't think that way._ I spent the night in a medic tent on a cot next to the ones where Gan and Gi Gu had spent the night. I regretted leaving my book back at our camp. Would've helped the evening go by quicker, but instead, I ended up training. More.

That was last night. It was morning now and I wanted to think I was ready. I woke up with the sound of the marching soldiers outside and saw it was the Crimson Battalion. Made sense. It was them who would be engaging the Earth Kingdom this morning. And Unit 350 had the honor of fighting alongside them. I moved from my where I had spent a sleepless night on a stiff cot and grabbed my pile of armor next to my bed and started getting dressed. I spent the night my underclothes, a small shirt and boxers, leaving the combat greaves and shirt in the pile along with my boots. Unlike other Fire Nation soldiers, I didn't get clothes. Made sense too considering I'd just end up setting them on fire.

I slipped on the greaves first, working them up to my waist, still disconcerted that the Fire Nation made combat armor my size, putting it out of my head shortly after. I slipped on the long sleeve, special fire-retardant shirt over my undershirt, rerolling the sleeves up 1 inch as the shirt was still a bit long on me, and finally got the armor. I put on the main chest piece first, clamping it myself over my shoulders. The first few times us Citadel kids had worn the armor, we needed help from the others getting it on, clamping the straps over our shoulders. We all got used to doing it ourselves in time. And the degree of comfort we felt short after in that armor made the feeling of putting it on all the more comforting, but all the same, satisfying upon taking it off. I remembered only after that my shoes were still off and slipped on my socks as I preferred to sleep without them. They were on soon enough, thankfully dry of the sweat from the days they'd gone without washing, but didn't dare to smell them, knowing I wouldn't get and positive results.

I looked over to the cots next to me to see the rest of my crew was still sound asleep with the exception of Gan who was starting to stir at the sound of the marching. I moved to wake him when a war horn sounded from within the camp, causing him to shoot awake, startling my in the process. He looked over to me, still getting dressed, and judging by the shift in his eyes from exhausted to alert, suddenly remembered what was scheduled for today. He moved over to Gi Gu's cot, pulling him off, awakening him instantaneously. All of us were more or less recovering from our injuries. Gan had trouble standing without a crutch, but the doctor's determined it was his left leg which was good as he wouldn't need it for driving. I'd help him get into his driver's seat and once he was there, he'd be just as useful if not more than he'd ever been in battle.

As my crew began getting into the motions of getting their clothes and armor on, and thankfully so considering Gi Gu slept naked, I got back to my own task, fitting on the metal leg plating, the sleek leather boots, and the metal armguards. I grabbed my helmet and moved to the washbasin with the seeing glass above it, splashing water in my face while trying to avoid my own gaze. I knew how I looked after yesterday but caught myself looking anyway. My eyes were red, there were cuts on my face, some scabbing, some not, and there was still dirt in my hair that I couldn't get out no matter how hard I tried. It didn't matter. I wasn't here to look pretty. I slipped the steel helmet over my head and all of a sudden, I wasn't Luke anymore. I was a soldier. And I was ready to go to war.

 **Danev**

The sun would be coming up soon. For better or worse. We started our march at the turn of the day. I was assigned company navigator by Captain Ze'lak, and if I was right, the listening post was 15 minutes away at our current pace. We had moved under the cover of darkness for the last 6 hours and that cover would soon be gone. Or maybe it already was gone. I didn't know a lot about earth benders, but I knew enough to know that so long as we're on their turf, waking, running, crawling, it didn't matter what the sun told them. The sun was the tool of people like Luke: firebenders. Not for earthbenders though. They didn't need the sun. They just needed solid footing. At least that's what Luke told me. _How is it that he is two years my youth, yet he's seen more combat than me? Was I really complaining?_ If Zor'ak was to be believed, he was dead. Here I was though, about to fight the enemy that might have killed the only other Hornet left. _There was no way he could be dead, though, right? But if he was alive, wouldn't he have come back? He would've delivered the message to the Dragon of the West and come back, so why hasn't he? Is he really dead. Is he stuck in those mountains somewhere, or is he within those walls? A captive?_

I shook my head, getting rid of whatever doubts I was having. I wasn't Luke. I may not be a firebender, but I'm more a soldier than he is. _Am I?_ I've survived more than he has. _Have I?_ I'll survive through this. Just like I survived through everything else. _Or will I?_

The first sign that something was wrong was when we passed the hull of a Fire Nation tank, abandoned. It was abandoned. We walked some more and found another husk. Empty. We continued our march for 10 more minutes. _5 minutes away from the listening post. But where is it._

There was another tank, fire nation, probably empty. "Private Zurang!" called lieutenant Zean'in. Check that tank for survivors.

Private Zurang rushed forward, doing whatever he could to get a promotion as soon as possible to make up for the money he'd lost yesterday. He wouldn't get the pay raise of course until the month was over and April had barely begun. All the same, Zurang crawled up the tank, looked inside, and turned to face the 107th company.

"Just like all the others, sir! Empty!"

Then his body was gone. Just. Gone. My ears were still ringing when I realized I was on the ground. Where there had been a Fire Nation tank, there was a crater. Where Zurang had been, there was smoke.

I was lying on my back, but there were tens of other plumes of smoke rising in the air. _Was there more than 1 bomb? Was it a bomb? What the hell's happening._ I felt a hand grab me by the shoulder and start dragging me away when I came to my senses and struggled, releasing myself from the grip of a team medic who thought I was dead. I got to my feet and turned to face him. Everybody in the company was running around. Some were shooting bows in the distance. _What's happening? Are we under attack?_

I had just thought the questions because no words came out and the medic respond. Instead, he just looked at me with wide eyes as though he were looking at a ghost and an arrow, like a needle into a doll, went right through his neck, going in well-made, shiny, and solid, and coming out red and gory.

We were under attack.

I ducked to the ground as a second arrow went above my head, now in the battle that the rest of my company was in. I felt a pang of pain in my head and thought I had been hit in the head with an arrow, but I kept on going. I grabbed my helmet off the ground and tried putting it on my head, but when I tried, it felt like metal scraping against metal and it sent a shot of pain through my skull. I threw the helmet inside, positive that it was broken, misshapen, and it would just impair me rather than help.

I found my short sword in its sheath but had lost my spear. I grabbed one off the ground, unsure if it was even mine as I was now starting to realize the number of new bodies making their way on the ground. _Where's Zurang?_

I rushed forward to where the tank had been, except it was still there, but a mangled heap of metal scrap, misshapen beyond all recognition, no Zurang to be found, except for his knife, lying 10 yards away from the crater, in perfect condition.

I would have told myself that I would give it back to Zurang when I found him, but I was now enough in the right mind to know that wasn't going to happen. I tucked the dagger in my belt and unsheathed my sword. I could see the battle around me now. Earthbenders, normal soldiers, and archers coming out of holes in the ground. More than 200. They outnumbered our company. We were trapped. We were dead. Did it really matter?

I backed up from the destroyed tank that marked our western perimeter. Most of the company was further east of it. I started pacing backwards, keeping my eyes on that perimeter, watching out for stray arrows, but the smoke of the tank concealed me. That was, it did, until the first Earth Kingdom soldier, battle axe in hand jumped through the smoke, directly in front of me and I remembered what I had been thinking about earlier. I wasn't fighting and enemy that needed its eyes. I was fighting an enemy that already had a solid grip on me. I deflected his first blow, knocking his one-handed axe to the side, and, faster and younger, and wielding a lighter weapon, retracted my weapon and brought it about his throat, where no armor protected him, opening a bloody entrance into him, sending him to the ground, dying, choking on his own blood. I paced further backwards, hoping to regroup with the rest of my company when back through the smoke came another Earth Kingdom soldier, and another, and another. I looked around us, hoping to find a hole in their defenses, but it was a fool's effort.

The arrows had stopped firing in preparation for a request for surrender, but I knew my captain, so I unsheathed the knife, getting a grip on it in my left hand, and turned to face the group of Earth Kingdom soldiers alongside some benders that were gathering at my side of the perimeter. I recognized some of the other soldier from my platoon who were gathering near me, ready to hold this line. I didn't even hear the request for surrender or the denial. Maybe there wasn't even one. I just saw the enemy charge. Did it matter, anyway? I was a soldier. Not an analyst. I wouldn't be critiquing this battle afterwards, making sure everybody played fair. This was war. There was no playing fair. There was surviving. I raised my weapons, locked eyes with the nearest charger and I fought. I didn't fight to serve my commander. I didn't fight to win a war. I fought to survive.

 **Luke**

My first though was to where the listening post was. We were on a series of hills, overlooking the plains and hills beyond it where the listening post was said to be, but there was nothing there. No identifiable structure. Nothing. Through the roaring of the wind and rain, I heard the grunt of a Komodo Rhino next to me and turned to see Lu Ten pull his mount next to ours. Without looking to me, but as though thinking to himself, said "This isn't right. They should have fortified it. They can't hope to hold it like this."

"Hold what?" I asked. "I see nothing there."

"They're earthbenders. Why keep something exposed to our artillery when you can bury it miles underground without a single consequence?"

I looked back at the hills beyond us and was thinking of what that listening post was worth at this point. I doubt the Fire Nation planned on wasting the time to dig it back out. "So your saying they buried the listening post underground?"

"Yes, but that's not the issue anymore. The enemy is expecting combat and another step forward, we pass the point of no return and walk into a trap."

I saw it too. There was an empty field directly in front of us with no form of obstacles to keep us at bay. It had to be a trap.

"Lieutenant!" Called Lu Ten to the man who promptly arrived at his commander's side, saluting, awaiting orders. "Get your mine sweepers ready. Stay away from rock formations and mark the perimeters of your search area."

"Yes sir!" The man ran back to his platoon, ready to gather them and have them, what, clear a path for the battalion?

I turned to Lieutenant Colonel of the Crimson Battalion and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what are they looking for?"

"Mines."

"Mines?"

"Land mines." He cleared up. "Small bombs you bury underground. When somebody steps on it, it pushes down a pressure plate that triggers an explosive. Nasty stuff."

"And you think this field is mined? I can understand it being trapped. Maybe with benders underneath the surface, but how would they get their hands-on tech like that. They steal it from Fire Nation convoys?"

"You're right to assume the tech is Fire Nation, but it isn't stolen. A few years back, the biggest arms producer for the Fire Nation, "Starros Arms", broke up into multiple subsidiaries. I won't bore you with the details, but it was a huge deal. Some of the subsidiaries defected and relocated to the Earth Kingdom and Starros Arms is a shadow of its former self. In response, we nationalized most industries within the Fire Nation."

"So now our own people are working for the enemy, making weapons to kill their own people. Why?"

"You assume they care. They're businessmen. You think they give two shits about nations or ethnicity? They don't. If they see they can make more money somewhere else than where they currently are, they'll go for it."

 _Well. That was uplifting._ "So, what now?"

"We wait. I won't have our battalion march into a trap so obvious. See that?" he asked, pointing to a group of mine sweepers gathering over a small patch of land, hauling out a large circular object and tampering with it, probably defusing it. "We were right. Now, we just hope the Earth kingdom gets impatient and meets us where we are, running through their own minefield."

"You think they're dumb enough to do that?"

"No. So I recommend getting comfortable. We'll be here awhile."

 **Danev**

I pulled my sword out of the man on the ground, shoving to knife in his rib cage to get enough leverage to pull out my sword. It worked, and I freed my sword in just enough time to swing it at the spearman who was charging me from my right. My sword collided with the head of his spear, sending it to his left, opening up his right for me to attack. I lurched forward, driving my dagger into his neck, pulling it out, swinging at his head with my short sword to put him out of his misery and cease his existence as a threat who could still operate enough to shove a spear into my back.

Out of my peripheral, I saw the rock that was flying towards me, and dodged it to the left, turning in time to see it crash into an Earth kingdom swordsman who had been standing behind me, clashing blades with one of our soldiers. He went to the ground and I charged the earthbender, hoping to catch him before he could summon more of the planet to his cause. Before I managed to reach him, like a gaping mouth, the Earth opened beneath him, swallowing the soldier and sheltering him from certain death. I had charged away from our perimeter. I was on the outskirts of our ever-thinning lines. I turned around to make it back to our perimeter of now only 100 men, shoving my sword through the back of an enemy soldier who had been locking blades with another one of our guys. When I pulled the sword out, sending the dead man to the ground, I saw the man I had saved was Zom'aik. He nodded to me and retreated back to the "defensive" lines of the Fire Nation. We were in close quarters combat now and the arrows had stopped falling for fear of hitting their own men.

It wouldn't last. Our luck, that is. Either we hold out long enough to annoy the enemy commander that he decides to rain arrows on his own men, or we just die normally. Either way, it wasn't looking good. I was back in the perimeter, and the enemy were still charging at us, more organized this time. We had no shields to use. Our spearmen, knowing their roles, attempted to make their way to the front of the formation in time to meet the chargers, but weren't quick enough. Swordsmen like me faced the brunt of the assault. I felt the knockback of a soldier's helmet as he charged forward head first but was held up by then soldier behind me. I recovered, knocking my sword against his shield to keep his head low and his neck high, and plunged my knife into the back of his exposed neck, feeling the warmth of his blood against my boots as he puked out whatever blood didn't already come out of his neck. His lifeless corpse slumped against me, and I pushed it off, regaining my position, hacking at the soldier nearest to my right who was engaged in a knife fight with Zihe to my left.

My sword went into the back of his neck, sending him to a knee. He was quickly finished by Zihe's short sword that made its way through his shoulder blade, deep into his now lifeless carcass.

I turned to my left this time, finding another Earth Kingdom charge approaching the men to my left and raised my sword to catch the nearest charger in the neck as he charged the man next to me. It worked, and the charging soldier fell dead at the feet of Zom'aik next to me like an animal falling dead in the middle of a run.

I was too focused on the man to my left that I failed to notice the one charging me, and this time, I wasn't help up by the spearman behind me. We both fell to the ground and the Earth Kingdom soldier pulled out a short axe, ready to bring it on my face. I brought my short sword up in retaliation, clutching the grip with my right hand and the blade with my left, dropping my dagger in the process. The hatchet met my blade, digging it deep into the palm of my left hand, but the blade of his axe was stopped. He stepped back to put his weight behind another strike that I had no hope of absorbing. I kicked at his right knee, sending him stumbling backwards enough for me to bring my short sword to a swing at his leg. The blade met his left leg below the knee and he fell atop me, still alive, but knocking the sword out of my hand. He had abandoned his hatchet and had one hand gripping my right and the other my left. I headbutted him, not knowing what else to do. It sent his head back an inch, but the man far larger than me retaliated with the same tactic, knocking my head into the mud caused by the morning rain. He brought his right arm to my neck, squeezing to the point he seemed intent on not choking me, but ripping my head off. All the same, my left hand was free. I could see nothing in my sight except for his face and probed the ground with my left hand to find the knife, hatchet, or anything.

I touched something metal but wasn't sure what. All the same, I brought it up in a swing, knocking him straight in the head with it, sending him off of me. I didn't take the time to catch my breath. I moved atop of him, clutching the weapon with both hands, bringing it down onto his face, back up, and back down once more until he no longer had a face. Then, once he was dead, I allowed myself to breathe. I looked at what weapon I had used, unsure whether it had been the knife or the hatchet, only to realize I had beat the man to death with a helmet.

I threw the helmet aside, grabbed my sword and knife, and stood back on my feet, taking a long deep breath, ready to fight to the very end. Our perimeter was failing. The battle had become nothing but a brawl as men abandoned organized warfare for the pure chaos and brutality that was war. I threw my sword aside, knowing it would do no good, and switched my knife to my good arm, and threw myself into the pile of bodies, alive and dead.

 **Luke**

Being right is something you can always take pride in. It makes you realize that you have a stronger grip on the situation than you expected. This wasn't one of those times. The land mines weren't the only trap. I realized that when the first hole opened in the ground and then another and another as Earth Kingdom soldiers were born into the world, ready to kill.

They had dug into the very center of the formation, meaning we had no time to reorganized. The mine sweepers were promptly picked off by archer one at a time as half-defused mines exploded, and their falling corpses triggered more. I saw the explosives. Small-scale. Anti-infantry. Shrapnel based. Designed to kill men. If we stayed on these hills, we were dead. We head to push to the listening post or get killed before we even made contact. I sent a blast of fire at the soldier nearest me, sending him in agonizing screams to the ground as I closed the hatch of the replacement tank while Unit 350 was being repaired and locked the hatch, turning to Gan and saying, "Go forward!"

"The mines!" he started

"Are anti-infantry." I completed. "We'll live."

Gan shook his head, muttering "Fuck it" and sent the tank forward.

It was the only option. Our formation was surrounded on all sides except the side they wanted us to go into, where landmines littered the ground. Unless that was made safe and viable, this battalion was dead. The tank lurched forward and soon, as though a boat in the thick of a storm, the tank began to shake violently as we passed the last point reached by the minesweepers, rolling over their arrow-filled bodies into no man's land. The tank shook violently, but she held. I looked thorough the blast slit to see our position but was forced to duck again as dirt nearly shot into my eyes, but my peek was enough. We were almost to the hills.

The tank continued to shake and right when we were about to reach the base of the hills, the right tread gave out, sending our landship drifting to a halt, triggering one last explosion as the right tread triggered one last mine.

There was no time to lose. I opened my hatch, barely dodging an arrow as it came towards me, hitting the metal hatch. I sent a blast of fire at the archer on the hill directly in front of us, sending him rolling down the hill in a ball of fire atop the hull of the tank, rolling off, and landing on another mine, triggering an explosion directly to my left, the force sending me back into the tank.

I got back out after checking myself and getting asked by Gi Gu if I was "alright" only to realize I was fine. I shook my head, trying to force the ringing out as I crawled back out of the tank. I saw upon exit that the archer took the full force of the mine, explosion and shrapnel alike. I looked around, viewing the battle on the other side of the field at what looked like a hopeless situation, until a wave of metal vessels, the armored division of the crimson battalion followed our example, accelerating into the field of mines, triggering hundreds of small explosions as they rushed towards the hills, side by side, apart by mere inches, triggering every landmine in the field.

The tanks came to similar halts as ours, either falling apart sooner or later. All the same, the field of mines was out, barriers of safety marked by the carcasses of disabled tanks. I helped Gi Gu out of the tank and motioned for Gan to give me his hand to help him out until he said, "my leg", reminding me of his injury and all of a sudden, I realized I had forgotten about him. I just deprived him of his only weapon.

"Shit, Gan. I forgot. I'm sorr-"

"Don't worry about it. I remembered and I'm the one that drove into that damn suicide mission. Don't worry about me. Take this listening post."

Gi Gu crawled up the side of the tank, throwing his crossbow and bolt inside the tank, saying "Remember which end which is." Before closing the hatch above Gan. The rest of the Crimson Battalion was now following the wave of tanks into the field now cleared of traps, a wave of Earth Kingdom soldiers following suit. The gunners of the tanks nearby, other firebenders, began firing shots into the hills above the heads of the advancing Fire Nation personnel. I considered joining in, but was uncomfortable shooting projectiles so close near friendlies, daring not to even graze a single one of these men, far more battle hardened, and likely less tolerant of fuck ups.

Rather, I advanced up the hill, sword in right hand, ready flame in left, Gi Gu at my side. Gi Gu and I reached the peak of the hill in the exact same instance as an archer rushing to get some shots at the advancing Fire Nation battalion. That thought was ended soon enough as I brought my blade in a swing, catching him above the waist, sending him to the ground, guts spilling onto the muddy grass as the rain began to come down in more force than before. Gi Gu caught an additional archer, plunging his sword through his shoulder, sending him to the ground. I was watching Gi Gu's kill, not paying attention to the new archer that had appeared to my right. I failed to notice him until I hear a thumb behind me and watched him fall to the ground with a crossbow bolt through his neck. I turned to face back down the hill, and sitting on the edge of the tank, loading a new crossbow bolt, was Gan, staring down the sight of his weapon as he fired an additional bolt, hitting a soldier who had just arrived over the hill. I nodded to him, thanking him for saving my life twice in the last 10 seconds, and turned back to the battle.

The rest of the battalion had caught up with Gi Gu and I, as we stormed through the hills. I looked over the hills to find a rear guard of firebenders and spearmen occupying the Earth Kingdom skirmishers who had first been sent to us.

I turned north however, alongside the rest of our battalion, and charged with them, the sound of screaming, swords clashing, and cries for help finally drowning out the drone of the falling rain. The battle was far from over.

We fought our way through the hills, slicing through whatever disorganized Earth Kingdom soldiers that tried to meet us, sending them to the ground. Before long, we reached where the listening post had been, or, in a way, still was, marked by a small ladder going down deep into the ground. "Luke! Gi Gu!" a voice called. I turned to my right to see Lu Ten, blood on his face, torso, and everywhere that the sun shone, approaching us. Judging by the way he looked at us when we turned to face him, we didn't look too different. "Head down that latter with my firebenders and burn them out of those holes. We found other Fire Nation soldiers on the other side of the hill fighting. Looks like guys from your camp. Meet us there when you're done down there, and we'll finish this fight!"

"Yes sir!" I shouted, not caring that I was just ordered to climb down into the heart of Earth Kingdom activity in this area. I sheathed my sword, still operating on adrenaline, and slid climbed down the wooden ladder through the tight corridor of earth, watching as Lu Ten raised his sword, rallying the rest of his battalion, leaving me, Gi Gu, and the firebenders to boil the soldiers in this tunnel alive.

When the corridor of Earth ended and I was in the cave, I let go of the ladder, jumping off onto a waiting Earth kingdom soldier with his spear raised, knocking it out of his hand as I landed on top of his, not wasting the time to reach my sword, but placing my hand on his face, fueling the flame as I burnt the side of his face, ending his life after only a few seconds of his struggling from under me. I saw the other spearmen charging at me from one of the tunnels in the obviously manmade cave and grabbed the dead soldier's spear from underneath me and raised it, ducking low to avoid the enemy's own spear, dodging his and planting mine in his chest. I released my spear, allowing the man to fall to the ground, dead, and unsheathed my sword. Gi Gu was now down with me along with more Firebenders who had just come down the ladder. I didn't remember much of what happened after that. I remember walking through the tunnels in that cave, not giving any soldier I found a single moment to prepare for battle. I realized then that the Earthbenders in this area were dead, already having died on the surface meeting our forces. The fact I was facing people less prepared than I didn't stop me. I let the fire flow free, engulfing entire room around me, trapping soldiers in burning rooms, shutting doors on them and barring them, leaving them to their private hells. Me and 5 other firebenders walked through those halls, finally finding the information hub, housing over 20 men, only 5 soldiers, and the rest tacticians. It didn't stop us. The room was soon smelting pot of agonizing screams of misery that didn't end when the fire stopped or when we turned around to leave the room. I didn't look back. I didn't turn my head. I Faced forward, looking through the two eye slits in my helmet, looking nowhere else. I was a soldier, and I followed orders.

 **Danev**

I dug my fingers into the soldier's neck with my left hand as I pummeled him across the face with his own gauntlet that I had pulled off of his hand, grabbing it by the gloves and beating him with the iron bracers until he was dead. I rose from the latest victim, grabbing him Warhammer from the ground, grapping it with both hands as I swung it at the Earth Kingdom soldier to the right of me. I didn't know if the crack I heard was his ribcage or the thunder that accompanied the lightening, but all the same, he was sent swiftly to the ground, gasping for air as he tried to get up, failing in that department.

I let go of the Warhammer, dissuaded by its weight and reached for my dagger, pulling out from my belt, digging it into the stomach of a soldier who approached me without a single weapon, but only his two firsts. I twisted the knife in his stomach, pushing him onto the ground, his body sliding off of the knife, allowing me to quickly regain its use and slit the throat of an Earth Kingdom soldier who was pummeling a Fire Nation trooper on the ground. His blood spilled on the soldier prior to his body falling on him and I moved on, ready to keep the fight going. Our company had been whittled down to less than 30 men and by the looks of it, we weren't going to win this one. I didn't care. I put the knife back in my belt seeing the next soldier who ran at me. I prepared to meet him hand to hand, but he tackled me to the ground, using his helmet to knock at my head, dazing me while I was on the ground. I grabbed at his face my with left hand while pulling off that damn helmet with my right, throwing it to the ground.

The soldier on top of me was also reaching for my race, but I grabbed his hand with my now free right, sending it to the side and managed to get a punch in on his face. He recoiled, and I kicked at his stomach, sending him back further. I pulled out my knife and expected him to come in again for another attempt at which I would plunge it in his stomach, but he didn't. He reached his hands to the side and only realized after a second or two that the earth was gathering around his arm. He was a bender. I tried crawling back, getting to my feet, only to stumble backwards. The bender smiled and raised the rock formation above him, ready to crush me to death until his creation fell onto the ground, crumbling at his feet, and the sword was pulled out of his neck.

The man fell to the ground on top of the rocks he had been manipulating moments ago and for the first time in what felt like hours, I heard it. Silence. The silence was only momentarily, because seconds later, a wave of Komodo Rhinos stormed over the battlefield, bearing the Fire Nation insignia, saving whatever was left of the 107th company. I watched as the cavalry mopped up what was left of Earth Kingdom forces, sending them either over the hills in full retreat, or straight to hell.

The soldier who had saved my life stepped towards me and reached a hand out which I promptly took, rising to the ground thanks to it, savoring the last sounds of the battle as victory on the field was secured, and I was still alive. I saw the war around me come to a halt a realized the battle was over and dropped the knife in my left hand to the ground and, seeing the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on the man in front of me, raised a weary arm to salute him, then passed out on the ground, realizing one thing: that I was still alive.


	29. Chapter 27: Soldiers

**Luke**

The air smelled of burnt, no, burning flesh. Coming out of that now lit hole in the ground, orange and yellow with the flames of a long battle, the smell spread over the battlefield, now rich with corpses, both friend and foe. The worst part was, it smelled good. If I were to close my eyes, I may have imagined I was back in the Hive, cooking a large rat over a small flame, seated next to me would be Ladle, Trap, Riu, and all the others as we told stories or made grand extraneous plans of how we'd get through the inner walls and live a life as a real human, and not some slum rat. They wouldn't live that dream, but I would. And here I was, a normal person, damn near salivating over the smell over the smell of my handiwork burning dozens of unarmed men alive. _What the fuck was wrong with me._ Lu Ten gave me those orders: _Head down that latter with my firebenders and burn them out of those holes._

I did just that. I went down there and followed orders. The godforsaken smell attested to that. _I was just following orders. I did what I was sent to do. So why did I feel so terrible about it._ I even, in some sick way, enjoyed it. _What the hell is wrong with me?_ I was scared for my own life for so long and now, despite being years younger, I held the power in the palms of my hand. And I used that power. I used my powers to torment those weaker than me, sending them to a fiery grave. _What in this damned earth is wrong with me?_ Why did I enjoy it? Was I just so sick of being inferior for so long? Was it because, for so long, I feared the smallest shadow in Citadel, knowing that, whether be it the smallest rat or a psychotic slum kid with a knife, it could kill me, and that I was so sick of that fear and that weakness that now that I had a way to not only fight back, but win, I enjoyed it despite the pain I inflicted?

 _It wasn't just me. No. Others too. I played a small role._ But I played a role all the same. I was there. The flames came out of my hands as much as with any of the others there. I counted the people that died in the fires I started, and I remembered them. 27. _Damnit. 27. I'm 12 years old for fuck's sake. I killed my first man, no, kid, when I was 11. Since then, I've killed 33 other people. What the hell is wrong with me._ I had to move, or the smell was going to drive me insane. I stood up, backing away from the blazing hole that I had been staring at, as though I was seeing images in the flames. I wasn't. I was only hearing the screams and smelling their delicious burning flesh.

I walked past the aftermath of the battle as wounded were brought past on stretchers, south towards the Crimson Battalion's trucks, readying them for evac. Prisoners were rounded, some executed, for the smallest offenses like standing out of line or not kneeling quick enough. The victors of the battle, us, were still recovering from the rush of adrenaline, the bloodlust still dominating our minds. Many more men would die before the day was over. If any of the prisoners survived until the morning, they would find a calmer foe that would sooner put them to excruciating work than killing them immediately. I wondered with they would prefer. I walked past an Earth kingdom soldier, a nonbender, missing his lower body, crawling through the mud, trying to escape from the Fire Nation, not aware he was half of his former self. My bloodlust had passed, and I didn't do it for the kill, I did it to put him out of his misery and the knowledge he was wasting air. I planted my sword in his back, straight through his chest, ending his suffering far quicker than it would have otherwise. I pulled my blade out, now bloodied once more, and wiped it against my undershirt as I walked trough the battlefield. _35 kills now._ I had to remember that number. The day I forgot was the day I was not a man. Not even a soldier. Just a killer. _I'm already a killer. The men I killed in that cave were unarmed. Defenseless. They were soldiers, yes, but they were unarmed. They didn't have to die._ But I had orders. I did what I had to do.

"Luke!" I heard Lu Ten's voice call from my left. I didn't want to see him now. Not after what he made me do. I turned away and tried to pretend I hadn't heard him until a hand on my shoulder pulled me around to face him directly, blood splattered across his face, a semi-deep cut across his forehead, and more than a fair share of ash on his person. "You okay?" He asked. "You injured?"

"I'm fine. I did it."

"I saw. Good work."

 _Good work?_ I didn't want to talk about any more, but I wouldn't let what I had done come across as "Good work."

"They were unarmed." I stated. "Only 2 of them were soldiers and I killed them first. The rest. They were just doing logistics. Running numbers and I burned them. They're still burning for Raava's sake and I can still hear their screaming underneath the ground!"

His eyes softened, but he retained his statement. "You did what you had to do to win the battle and save Fire Nation lives."

"I didn't! They would have surrendered. I could see that. I saw the fear in their eyes when I went down there, just another flamethrower wearing a faceless mask!"

I threw my helmet to the ground, letting it sink into the mud and tried to retreat when Lu Ten grabbed me again, this time not turning me around, but saying "You did do what you had to do. Every man fears death when they stare it in the eyes, but they would have killed you the first chance they got. They would have run for the spears of the men still on ground level before surrendering themselves. And what if they retreated? Through the tunnels. I got the accounts from the other soldiers who went down with you. Those tunnels connect with Ba Sing Se. If you hadn't done what you did, and collapsed those tunnels and eliminated the threat, we wouldn't be talking right now. We would be facing the brunt of the Earth Bender army, and we would have lost. This is war and you were given a choice. A choice between the lives of your comrades, or the lives of the enemy and you made the right choice. We're alive because you did what you had to do down there. I know it wasn't pretty, but this is War and tough choices have to be made."

He let go of my arm and reached down to the Earth to grab my helmet, the white face plate stained with ash, blood, and mud. He didn't bother wiping it off, but handed it to me as it was, scarred and bloody, just like the man wearing it. I hadn't thought about what I did in that way. I was just a soldier, wasn't I? My duty was to defend the lives of my comrades and defeat my enemy. I did that, didn't I? And I did it well, right?

I accepted the helmet from him and looked it in the eyes as though I were looking at my own face. Was there a difference? Does a good soldier have a face, or does he abandon that to become the honed weapon of whomever he fights for?

"Thank you." I said, looking up to Lu Ten, a true soldier if there ever was one. One who could stand to look death in the eye and let death see his face without a shield shrouding his identity. Not me though. I turned the helmet around and put it over my head, limiting my vision only to what was directly ahead of me and nowhere else. I was a soldier.

 **Danev**

The pain in my head was still there. I was on my back, on what I didn't know, but I was inside a red tent, barely able to see the outline of a black flame on the outside. _So we won_. I lied back, still aghast I was still alive. I shouldn't have survived that. This was the second time in less than a year that I've said that. The first time was the battle in Citadel and now this. How do I keep on surviving when everybody else behind me keeps on dying? _I wear their armor, but I'm still a survivor above all. I wasn't quick to forget the lessons of Survival I learned in Citadel. I knew how to survive, and I wouldn't be brought down by those around me who didn't. I was a survivor._

I heard the flaps to the tent rise and saw a figure I didn't recognize walk inside, but I could see his ornamented armor. He was a commander of sorts. If it was Zahckrael, then I was really was screwed. But then again, so was Zor'ak which made me feel a bit better.

Then I remembered Zurang. I shot up in a sitting position on whatever I was lying on, sending a number of metal items to the ground next to me as I reached for my belt, fumbling for Zurang's dagger. _Damn it, where was it?_

"Looking for this?" a voice said, and I looked up. It was a young man, a hair bun held together by a Fire Nation insignia and long sideburns. I recognized him. He was the same man who saved my life yesterday. And that hair ornament, he was, the crowned prince. I attempted to kneel, but remembered I was already on my back, and ended up tumbling off of the cot I had been lying on, falling to the ground. As I attempted to rise, I saw a hand offered in front of me, and took it. I was momentarily pulled up face to face with the man. He chuckled and said, "For somebody who 'swears loyalty to know man and know nation', you seem ready to kneel at a moment's notice."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, a knot forming in my stomach, wondering if all of my thoughts had even been in my head. I sat down on the cot and awaited an answer, trying to ignore the throbbing in my head.

"The nurses told me you talked in your sleep."

"Sleep? How long was I out?"

"Just a day and a night. It's the day after. We won, and you survived despite the tank sticking out of your head."

 _The tank sticking out of my head?_ "The what?"

"You mean you didn't notice the shrapnel sticking out of your head during the entirety of the battle? Didn't stop to wonder why every man you encountered on that field had a mortified look about them as though they were facing Vaatu?"

"I just thought I was that intimidating."

"Oh believe me. You were" he said as he picked up the medical equipment that had fallen to the ground. I looked to the tray he was moving the equipment back onto, stained in blood, and saw a shard of metal, completely bloody on almost half of it. "I saw your handiwork." He continued. "You killed a man with a glove, one with a helmet, and more than a fair share with this knife of yours. Nice blade. I believe it belongs to you." He said, grabbing it by the blade, offering me the hilt."

I accepted the knife a looked at the blade, the carving of the roaring dragon still present. I sheaved the knife in my belt and allowed myself to finally relax. "Thanks, but its not mine. It belonged to a buddy of mine."

"He died?"

I nodded. He was blown out of existence. Just like that. In the snap of a finger. One second, he was there, looking through that tank and the next, he was just a memory. The tank. "So what's this about the tank sticking out of my head?"

"Well. You apparently went through that entire battle with shrapnel lodged in your skull. It only went a few millimeters deep, not breaching it, but it left quite the mark. Your lucky it was so easy to pull out and it didn't go any deeper or you'd be a goner. It was an open fracture, but the surgeons managed to pull the shrapnel out and close the wound. They said you got lucky and at worst, you'll only experience periodic head pain, swelling, nausea, and blurry vision."

"Really? Well, I don't feel that lucky."

"You should. Your company. Well. I'm sorry to tell you, but you were one of the only survivors."

I looked up to him, waiting for him to elaborate, but he was giving me time to come to terms. I didn't need time. I needed answers. "How many?"

"Of the 107th Company, only 37. Of the 31st platoon, only 6. You are 2 others were from Citadel. I checked your files and thought you may want to know."

"Checked my files?"

"Communication has been restored with the 5th Corps' camp. The silence is over. The siege can officially begin."

"What more have you heard from our camp?"

"Zor'ak is being court martialed for insubordination."

"Good."

"Don't get too relieved. It's likely just a formality. Commanders are in high demand right now and good ones aren't just lying around."

"I should know. One of them sent me into that shit-show."

"I heard. Unauthorized engagement with the enemy. Quite the offense."

"For the officer who sent us."

"And the soldiers who went." Lu Ten sat down on a chair in then tent, indicating we still had much to talk about. "If more of you had survived, this wouldn't happen, but with only 37 survivors. They'll trial every last one of you. I know Zahckrael's style. He wants to think he's in control and the slightest hint of insubordination will send him off. This is just that. He'll do whatever he can to proclaim his authority. Zor'ak may live, but his underlings won't, including you."

"Me?"

"Yes. It comes down to numbers. Zahckrael can't kill his second in command, but he can kill everybody else. The numbers will balance out and killing even grunts may hold the same impact as killing a commander without the same negative impact on the command structure."

"But after a disaster like that, he can't keep Zor'ak in such a place of power!" I protested.

"He will. He'll be more closely monitored of course, and the loyalty of the men will no longer belong to Zor'ak, but it won't belong to Zahckrael either. That's where he's making a mistake. In killing the 107th, the 22nd Infantry will see a sharp decline in morale. There'll be deserters and mutinies if he isn't careful."

"So do something."

"What can I do? I'm a lower rank than him."

"You're the son of the prince."

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I've been thinking about that. I think I have a way I can save what's left of the 107th and prevent a revolt in the 5th Corps' ranks."

"How?"

"Over three quarters of the 107th ahs been eliminated meaning it can no longer be officially considered a Company by Military Organization standards. The men are disorganized. As I am a of a superior rank to your company's captain, I have full authority to incorporate them into the Crimson Company to replace soldiers I've lost considering we fought on the same battlefield and I was the commanding officer of the battle."

"You'll do that?"

"I will. Our armies just got in touch with each other after months of disorganization and I'm not going to allow a mutiny to stop this siege. We've waited long enough."

"When will it become official?"

"When I send the hawk to Lieutenant General Zahckrael in a few minutes."

"Won't he object?"

He stood up and went for the exit. "He will. It won't matter. Oh. And there's someone outside who wants to see you. Welcome to the Crimson Battalion."

And with that he left, having said his last words at the flap of the tent.

 _Somebody wanted to talk to me._ And not a second later, the tent flaps opened and in came Luke. _I knew you were alive._ I stood up from where I was sitting on my cot and ran up to hug him. I never realize how tall he was getting. He was two years the younger yet only a few inches shorter. We separated, and I had to look at his face again to see it was really him. "I knew you were alive."

"You thought I was dead?"

"The 22nd always did pray for the failure of the 15th. Don't have to worry about that anymore, though."

"So Lu Ten told you? About the Crimson Battalion?"

I chuckled, now letting the reality of the situation take hold. I was finally getting away from the idiots in charge of the 22nd. "He did."

"So what do you think?"

"I'm finally getting away from those idiots in charge of the 22nd, that's what I think."

"Well, hey. Congrats. Did he give you the same offer?"

"He did, but I refused."

"What? Why?"

"I talked it over with the others in my crew and they're staying in the 15th, so I am too. I got a promotion instead of a reassignment."

I laughed. "He would have given you both."

"Yeah. Probably, but I'm happy being a Sergeant."

"You got promoted to Sergeant!?"

"Yeah, but hey. You're being given a squad in the new 31st platoon. Didn't Lu Ten tell you that part?"

 _A squad!?_ "No! Are you kidding me?!"

"Nope. Congratulations, Staff Sergeant." He said, saluting me. "Guess you still outrank me."

I chuckled at that, remembering my first promotion to Private First Class back in Citadel for organization reasons only, back when Aden was still around to salute too. I put the thought away. "I always will."

I thought back to the one who put me there. Lu Ten. "So what do you think about him?"

"Lu Ten?"

"Yeah."

"I like him. He gives me the impression of a real soldier. One who cares about his men, but still strives for victory over all."

"A true soldier." I echoed. "Been wondering what that really means lately."

"Me too. I did some bad things back on that field, but Lu Ten talked to me. He made me realize that this is a war after all and war isn't pretty. We're soldiers. We don't get a lot in our station in life. We get orders, incompetent superiors, battle scars, nice one, speaking of which" he said, pointing to my head and the remnant of the injury I still had yet to observe. "But we do have one thing that we can never lose." He continued. "Our brothers. This is still Citadel, I realized. We still have somebody above us using us to meet his own goals and this still is a war for survival, but we're still the Hornets. Our goal is to serve and survive to serve some more. We're soldiers. We've always been. Right, Danev?"

I looked at the shard of shrapnel on the blood-stained tray on the night stand next to my medical cot. I've already given a piece of myself to this war. I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I looked at Luke, and smiled, thinking of the effort that went into that entire speech of his. He must've been told about my dream talk. Well, I wouldn't give him reason to worry. I grabbed his right hand and raised it to chest level between us. "Soldiers." I repeated. "Brothers."


	30. Chapter 28: Politics and Intrigue

**Zahckrael**

He thought he was so much better than me. I could see it in his eyes as his royal crimson guard escorted him into my tent. My tent! Waltzing in here like he owned the camp, I was surprised he had the courtesy to wait until I asked him to sit. He walked into my tent ready. I had the entire day to await his arrival, but I still wasn't ready for this. He knew what my right hand had done and there was no going back from that. I had no scape goat in the form of the 107th, I would be forced to reprimand Zor'ak, and I was short of troops now that the 107th wasn't in my command anymore. _Not like it was that many troops. Most of them had apparently been wiped out in the battle. Damnit, Zor'ak. If you had asked me first, I would have told you to wait, yes, but I would have given you more troops. You didn't have to go behind my damn back for this. One company. What was he thinking?_

Lu Ten sat across from me, surrounded by two red-clad royal guards. What did they expect? Me to attack the prince's son? I may have been an idiot to have given Zor'ak as much power as I did, but that was just suicide. I wasn't that desperate.

"Zahckrael." He started, omitting any rank or title from my name.

"Lu Ten." I responded, doing like-wise. I only realized after the fact that it wasn't that smart a thing to do given my position, but I wasn't planning on appearing weak here. The fault wasn't mine save for my poor assigning of office. I'd hold my ground. It wasn't me he was after. _Or was I?_

Luckily, Lu Ten didn't notice, or rather, ignored my lack of professionality in omitting his rank and titles. "I trust you've heard about the battle that occurred two days ago?"

"I have. A glorious victory."

"Yes." He said, resting his chin on his hand with his elbow planted on the table, leaning towards me. "Glorious for the Crimson Battalion. Less glorious for the 107th, I hear. I saw the brawl with my own eyes. Devoid of proper weapons and ammunition and training, driven to a mad brawl they were lucky to survive."

"They drove the attention from the Crimson Battalion."

"Yes. I'm sure it was Zor'ak intentions all along to aid my forces which he obviously knew about despite the lack of communication between our camps for over a month now." _What was he playing at? What reaction was he trying to get out of me? Was he even trying to get one?_ "Let me cut the bullshit." He said, interrupting his chain of thoughts. "And I'm hoping you'll do the same. We know this isn't about the battle. The men fought well and helped our forces in distracting soldiers that would have otherwise been attacking our front of the battle. This isn't about that, though. This is about a commander under your command who, according to what you told me, disobeyed orders and launched this attack on the listening post with only a single company."

 _It_ _was_ _a dumb plan. There was no denying that._ "As I said. He went against direct orders."

"So you directly gave him orders not to attack the listening post then?"

I sighed. He would know when I saw lying and when I wasn't. "I never told him not to attack the listening post. When we established our camp, I ordered both Zand and Zor'ak to not act without my go-ahead. So yes, he disobeyed direct orders."

"So the fault lies in this Zor'ak then?

"Yes."

"How do you plan on dealing with this?"

"I can't lose him as an officer."

"Why not?"

 _What kind of question was that? Would he execute his most senior officer for a single act of incompetence? Maybe he would._ "I can't afford to lose him. Who would replace him?"

"Promote an officer."

"I-I"

"Look. I can't order you to execute one of your officers. You outrank me, but we know who holds the power in this room. I'm merely here to offer you advice. Advice you'd be wise to heed. Zor'ak will drag this army down. He has been for the last few weeks now. Yes. I've questioned his company and they've confessed that this wasn't the first of Zor'ak's 'illegal' operations. Surprised? You shouldn't be. This is what happens when you remove a dog's leash. They're loyal to you while they're attached but the second they're free, they run off in search of prey. And assuming they catch a good-looking prey, they may even bring it back to present to its master. The fact you've received no trophies from this dog of yours is proof enough of his incompetence. His actions are getting Fire Nation soldiers killed. Over half of his company was slaughtered!"

"I know."

"You know?! Those were Fire Nation citizens who weren't even supposed to be in that part of the warzone. They died because a glory-hound of an officer was unsatisfied with his station and believed himself better than you. He disobeyed direct orders and now our nation had suffered the price. This cannot be tolerated."

"I know."

"Then deal with it. I sent you the hawk, but I want to say it in person. The 107th is in my command now. Here's the form of reassignment from General Iroh. The 107th has attached to the Crimson Company. Maybe now they'll finally have a competent superior."

 _I didn't bother arguing. I was stubborn, but I knew when I was beat. This would go by quicker if I said nothing._ I sat there and said nothing. In time, Lu Ten left and walked to the flap of the tent before turning around and saying "Oh. And say congratulations to Lieutenant Zand for me. His scouts excelled perfectly, and I've promoted the crew of unit 350 to sergeants. The form of promotion is attached to the form of reassignment. You have good men in this camp. You'd be wise to put them to use. And not under the command of an idiot like Zor'ak."

"What of the siege, sir? Now that the listening post and the surrounding area has been secured?"

"You'll get a hawk in 3 days' time with the battle plans for the siege. I myself don't know the precise details of the operation but allow me to advise patience and to get your artillery ready. This war is far from over.

With that, the prince's son left to gather his own troops and return to his father's camp. The second I no longer heard his footsteps, I burned the forms he had given me. He may as well have literally rubbed them in my face. I outranked him, yet he came in here, acting like he owned this camp ad my men and tried to humiliate me, leaving me with the mess of Zor'ak to deal with. _What would I even do with him? I can't execute him and can't remove him from command? What do I even do?_

 _I'll deal with him later._ I opened the letter attached to the promotion forms that I had removed and saw the new sergeant rank patches inside. 3 of them. One for each crew of unit 350. As much as I hated the little shit, Lu Ten, he was right about one thing: I did have good men in this camp and they deserved to be rewarded. Now how would I reward those 3 turncoats who decided to aid Lu Ten in the battle of the Listening Post? I burned the rank patches, igniting them in a fire in the palm of my hands and stood up from my seat, grabbing the map from the wall, now showing the are between our two camps as friendly territory and noticed the new pings of suspected enemy activity brought to us by intelligence and message interception from Earth Kingdom messengers who didn't yet know about the battle.

I saw the pings of Earth Kingdom activity north of our camp, far away from friendly territory and made my decision as to where unit 350 would be headed next. Lu Ten was right. Loyalty was a problem in this camp. Right now, the bigger threat was soldiers loyal to an opponent rather than those seeking personal glory. Zor'ak would have to great. I had 3 unfaithful tanks crewmembers to deal with.

 **Luke**

"We're being assigned back to Squad 5 with the Iron Gauntlet." I read to Gan who was lying on his sleeping sack back in our own tent.

"Is squad 5 still a thing?" Gi Gu asked.

"1 tank was destroyed. Another was crippled. And 2 were executed."

"The crews were executed. Still have 2 working tanks to fill. Camp's set up. Zahckrael's probably just putting mechanics and engineers in tanks now."

"That's stupid." I said. "They're not trained."

"Yeah. Well." Said Gan, shifting his weight to accommodate for his leg. "Neither were we back in Citadel, but here we are. Still alive, no thanks to you, Luke. That minefield stunt. I'm still shaking."

"It worked, though." I said grinning, at ease away from the battlefield, not feeling the need to look over my shoulder at every moment.

Gi Gu spoke next. "So how long do you think until we're put on the field?"

"With Gan's leg? A week at least."

"I doubt that." Gan said. "We've only been back at camp for a day and we've already been assigned to a squad again. Odds are we'll be deployed either tonight or tomorrow."

"Where?" Gi Gu chuckled. We won the battle for the post. We pretty much control everything outside of the wall now."

"Not really." I interrupted. "Water Tribe still has control of the northern sea and fragments of Earth Kingdom forces will still be in the area for a week at most, not yet aware that their no longer have the advantage of intelligence. We could be sent out to find these remnants before they get back inside the walls."

"Why bother?" Gi Gu asked. "Let 'em fall back. They'll die all the same when we attack the city."

"Or he wants us dead." Gan offered.

"Why would he want that?" Gi Gu asked. "We won. We were promoted too."

"Yeah." I said. "By Lu Ten. I've seen the tension between officers before. Back in Citadel. I don't think Zahckrael appreciates 3 of Lu Ten's pets within his camp."

"So he'd just have us killed?"

"No." stated Gan. "But he'll try. Let's make sure we continue to disappoint him."

"They can't deploy you, though." I said. "Not like this. Zand wouldn't let you go out in the field and Zahckrael won't deploy us without you. He won't bother giving us another driver. If he can't kill all of us then one swing, then why bother?"

"Maybe you're right, but all the same, you two should get ready. I can still drive with one leg, but you should tend to your own wounds and get some training. I'm not excited by our odds and if we're deployed, I want to be ready for it.

"This is retarded." Gi Gu said. "I thought that after the shit we went through in the last 3 weeks, we'd finally get a break. Guess that was too much to ask for."

"It was." I said. "Let's go, Gu. Give Gan some rest.

We left the tent and I closed the flap behind me, adjusting it to let in as little light as possible. His left leg was in a splint. It was definitely broken from the rough passage through the mountains and the Battle of the Listening Post hadn't helped him. We had our old tank back though which was of some consolation. They had patched unit 350 back up nicely and even rearmed her. She was good to go. The same couldn't be said for her crew, however. We weren't exactly in peak physical condition at the moment. I myself hardly had the energy to move about today but knew I would have to. If the last few weeks had taught me anything, it was that I'd have to read ready for anything.

"Gu." I said. "Up for some sparring?"

"I'm not sure. Think I'm going to grab some breakfast first and take a nap. I'm beat."

"Alright." I said, somewhat disappointed in him. "Remember to practice your shooting though. We need our rear gunner. Not just stationary targets too. Use the balloons. Lot of wind today. They'll make for good practice.

"Yes sir, sergeant sir." He said mockingly as he walked backwards in the opposite direction towards the dining tent.

I myself wasn't particularly hungry. With the Fire Nation success at the listening post, I knew that the assault on Ba Sing Se would begin soon. And we had to be ready. **I** had to be ready. I walked to the training yard where the balloons were being stored and opened the first crate, releasing the first of a series of target balloons from the sky, buoyant enough to float, but not too much as to fly away. The wind was indeed strong, and they followed the flow of the wind, moving unpredictably. I chose my first target as more balloons raced into the sky and fired.

 **Long Feng**

"Your grace." Pleaded the man below the throne, a perfect 100 feet away from the first steps as he fell to his knees to attract as much sympathy as he could from the Earth King's court, no, my court. "My farms are burning. My livestock have been slaughtered. My wife has been raped and murdered, my children taken for slaves."

I knew he was lying the moment he began to speak. I could see it in the way he moved in the beginning. The more grandiose his lie, the more he hid his face. Now he was on his knees, torso to the ground, facing nothing but the floor as he attempted to milk whatever sympathy he could from the king, but he was barking up the wrong tree. It wasn't the Earth King who would decide this man's fate. Not if I could help it.

The man continued with his plea. "All I ask for is a tract of land in the outer district to re-establish my livelihood. To get back on my foot. I would sell food to the city and the city only. We do need food now, with the war, do we not?"

"Yes. We do." Kuei agreed, disappointingly speaking without my go-ahead.

I leaned over to his ear and whispered "The man is lying your grace. He is just a slum-rat looking for free land. He lost nothing."

"Of course he's lost something" he replied, far louder than I'd hoped for. "If what you're saying is true, then he lost when he was born in the wrong part of the city. Our city needs food now more than ever with this war and he can be useful in alleviating this city's problems."

He stood up from his throne, that hideous chair that yet held so much power, and loud enough for the entire court to hear, declared "The thrones grants this man 100 acres to re-establish his livelihood. This war has taken away too many lives at the hands of the Fire Nation, but only through action and generosity can the wounds of this war be healed. I cannot give you back your family or your farm, but I can help you rebuild."

The man stuttered as he attempted to rise to his feet, only stumbling in the process and said "You-you're too gracious. But my wife-"

"Is dead." I interrupted. _What more did the cretin want?_ "You heard your king. You have your land. You may go."

"Th-thank you, your grace. He bowed as he left, stumbling again as he made his way to leave, only remembering to resume his play at grief when he was near midway out of the throne room. Once again, despite my best effort, our king had been played for a fool.

Once the man was gone, and the Earth King moved to rise out of his throne, abandoning his court, I leaned over to him, saying "You shouldn't have given him that land. He was obviously lying. Now you've been played for a fool. He knows it. I know it. You know it. And your court knows it."

"They know I'm a generous King and right now, that's what we need. That land was unused. It's only reasonable to improve it."

"Yes. It is, but we should not be distributing valuable land to nameless peasants. The throne can make a profit off of the land and we'd be foolish to give it away for free."

"Money is the least of our concerns right now. There's an army at our walls and we're under attack. We cannot be focusing on grabs for power and money right now. Not when so much is at stake. I'm retiring for the night. The court is closed. Please announce it to those still waiting."

With that, he left, and I made the announcement as the massive doors to the throne room were shut and another day in the Earth Kingdom had ended.

I rushed to catch up with the King as he made his way towards his personal chambers, pushing my way past through his court, going their own ways about their evening lives, whether be it to parties, their own rooms or homes, or somewhere more nefarious. I knew the lives of the men, women, and children that spent their time in the presence of the king. There was Count Keinu, Count of the Banking district, overly fond in spending his money on more illicit activities in the slums district, particularly the underground fighting arenas. There was Duchess Keiva of the Southeastern Inner Ring, overly fond of young boys, a habit I have exploited many a time in exchange for her vote in vital matters. They were scum, but they were my scum, and so long as I knew every one of their secrets, desires, and vices, they were mine to control.

I caught up to Kuei when we were finally out of the throne room, in the hall leading to the royal apartment, an entire section of the palace housing only the Earth Kingdom. My own domicile was not a quarter the size of the own, but I put up with living in the muck if it meant all the more power outside of it. I managed to keep pace with him, giving me an opening to voice my ever-present concerns. "Your grace. I do recommend that you do not make such, hasty, decisions on your own. It's as you said. There is a war going on right outside our walls. We must allocate resources appropriately to ensure Ba Sign Se, and the Earth Kingdom, remain intact."

"We are at war, Long Feng. Our nation does not have time for political intrigue. We must be ever diligent and hard at work. I've proposed many times that we split the outer district to the peasants and have them farm the whole of it, but you don't listen."

"If we assign that land carelessly, we will lose millions."

"Millions of gold pieces will not matter if these walls fall and millions are subsequently killed by the Fire Nation. You run the government in my stead, but I have authority to overrule your decisions. Our people require food. Our food lanes are being blocked and Water Tribe fish is coming in more and more infrequently. I'm afraid, Long Feng, that I must go against your counsel and enact the Farmland distribution bill."

 _I was aghast. Ever since the siege had begun, I'd been losing influence on him, but now, now this was more than I had ever anticipated._ "That would be. Most unwise, your-"

"I heard you the seventh time, thank you. You may go home, Grand Secretariat. We will discuss this further on the morrow."

By then, we had reached his room and he shut the door behind him. I could now feel the heat rising to my face. This war has been nothing short of disastrous for Ba Sing Se. This siege all the worse. When there was no war directly threatening Ba Sing Se, Kuei was nice and easy to control, but now, now he was letting his concern for his nation get the best of him. It would lead to nothing but ruin for this nation. I retreated back down the hall, through the now empty throne room, through the golden doors to my domicile, through the back door, and into the inner garden.

He was waiting where he was every night: in the center of the garden, fully uniformed, staring at the same flowers until I approached him: Captain Kaizar of the Dai Li.

"What do you have for me?" I asked only after scanning the garden for any onlookers, taking a position next to him, looking at the same flowers, avoiding all forms of eye contact.

"The Fire Nation has taken our listening post south of the city."

 _That was disturbing. It was our main source for intelligence on Fire Nation movements and was the only thing halting their advance. Now, though, with the coming of the 5_ _th_ _Corps and their unification with the Dragon's army, well, an assault on the city was near inevitable._

"Would you like preparations on the wall, sir?" he asked.

"Yes. I want more Dai Li on the walls, inner and outer. Ensure the tram security is replaced by Dai Li agents and give all passengers going in or out proper security checks. The Fire Nation will attempt to infiltrate our city to ease their assault on them. We won't let them get that far. Increase presence in the inner city as well. That means more patrols and security checkpoints, increasing in number as you approach the palace. Do we have the men to spare?"

"A new division just exited training in Lake Laogai this week. 500 police."

"Good. Use them to check the walls. I want veterans in the streets and in the tram checkpoints. What's your report on the city populace?"

"They're calm. They don't yet know about the loss of the listening post, nor will they as they never knew of its existence."

"Good. Have any of the survivors from the battle made it back to the city as of yet?"

"No sir, but we expect the first group of survivors may arrive tomorrow if they hadn't been caught during their retreat. Would you like for them to be intercepted before returning home?"

"Yes. Bring them straight to lake Laogai. Let nobody see your men."

"To Lake Laogai? For what purpose if I may ask."

"I cannot tell you yet but understand this city must remain calm during these times of turmoil. The city will be attacked soon and the last thing we need is open revolt in our streets. I cannot tell you what I have in mind but inform Joo Dee that I have need of her. Understood?"

"Understood. Any final orders?"

"How many troops do we still have near the 5th Corps' camp?"

"Around 50. 20 of them Earth Benders. Orders?"

"Destroy their artillery. Send the message through our tunnel crawlers and tell them to destroy the camp's siege batteries at whatever cost."

"Yes sir."

He left as discretely as he had been standing by the flowers to the point that when he was gone, I wondered if he had even really been there. They were the Dai Li. That was their purpose, and they were damn good at it.

I waited another 5 minutes then left myself. The sun may had set on the Earth Kingdom, but the day was far from done. The day ended when the next sun rose and not a moment sooner. Anybody who thought overwise had no care for the world they failed to see, but that world was one I knew. This city would be attacked soon, and only the worlds of the day and night combined could save this nation.


	31. Chapter 29: The Siege: Part 1: Ambush

**Luke**

I let the helmet fall to the ground and dropped into my cot in the same routine that has been haunting me for the last week. We get up in the morning, see our orders slipped underneath the tent, skip breakfast, pack, get in our tank, and hunt down whatever goose Zahckrael has us after that day. It's been non-stop fighting, day after day. We drive, search for the enemy, and when we don't find them, we wait for them to come for us, and they always do. Same ambush too to the point they're becoming predictable. We hold our ground, hope the earth doesn't swallow us whole, and kill the enemy. Day after day without pause.

 _27._ How many lives I've taken in the last week alone. As of today, Gi Gu got his count up to 19 and Gan up to 80. Of course, he takes the credit for whatever kills we get as, well, according to him, with him being the driver and all, he's kind of responsible for everything we do. He's not wrong. And with his leg still busted, I'm not inclined to deprive him of the pleasure he seems to get from this war. Do I get pleasure from it? Well. Maybe a little. Maybe its that same sense of pleasure that comes from a feeling of strength and dominance, but then again, maybe its something else. All the same, I know when I'm beat. That was 7 days ago before our first goose chase and I'm still feeling it today. I don't know how many more days like this I can take. Will I keep going? Of course. Will I complain? Maybe, but I'll keep going and nothing's going to stop me. Not the Fire Nation, not The Earth Kingdom, and not Zahckrael. I'll keep going as long as I have to.

 **Zahckrael**

I heard the flap to my tent open and turned around, expecting somebody else only to see it was Gan, again, for the seventh time this week, still favoring his right leg. _For Raava's sake, when will he just collapse to the ground and give up?_ And where were my soldiers to announce him? "My soldiers should have announced you. And you failed to salute"

Gan slowly raised his arm to his forehead, doing a quick salute and returning his army slowly to his side, giving me a stare I didn't much appreciate "They weren't on duty. Guess they can't all be as diligent as Unit 350."

"So, your unit's returned."

"Our unit's returned." He repeated, taking a rather smug, insubordinate look to his face. How would I describe an insubordinate look, I don't know, but he wasn't holding himself back from making an example of one.

"Then why are you still here?"

"Waiting for orders sir. I was thinking something more reasonable this time. Oh, I don't know. How about you have us scale the walls and lay siege to the palace. Or better yet, have us lure the Earth Kingdom army to the palace, fight them 1 to 10,000, and take them all captive so you can interrogate them later, of course, only after securing the Earth King and raising a Fire Nation flag over the palace."

"Do you have a point to make?"

"Very observant of you. I do in face. We need a fucking break."

 _Piece of shit thinks he can curse at me?_ "You will speak as befits my rank, soldier."

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir. I was wondering, sir, when you're going, sir, to just get us killed all ready without having to be subtle about it. Sir."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Fuck that. You've been pushing our unit to the brink. You've removed us from our squad and our sending us out on solo runs. Solo runs! Against pockets of Earth Benders."

"And you've managed fine."

"Sir. Meaning no disrespect, you're a fucking idiot."

I turned around from where I was looking at the newly marked map of Ba Sign Se and turned to face the young soldier head on. He was brave for his age in all the wrong ways. For somebody raised in the Military District of Citadel, he had a lot of nerve speaking to a CO in that way. It must be Gi Gu, or that kid, Luke. Born in the Slums. Of course he would cause problems.

"You want a quick death, private Gan?"

"It's sergeant, sir."

"I don't see the rank paldron on, private."

He gave me a look that said he knew what I did, but there was no logical way for him to know. And so what if he did. Would he do anything about it? He was a private, and I was his commanding officer.

"If you want a quick death, then continue at it. I can have you executed by morning."

"Then why don't you?"

So he called the bluff. So what? I could have him imprisoned. Lu Ten wouldn't notice or care. Would he? I can't execute him, but what can I do. Everything failed so far, and I can't outright kill him. Lu Ten would have me on my ass for that. No. Fuck Lu Ten. I'll give this little shit the death he's asking for.

"Because I have something more important in mind for you."

"Oh boy. Can't wait. What is it this time. Want us to put paddles on our tank and battle the Water Tribe navy?"

"No. Get your rest. That's what I ask of you. And be ready, because the artillery starts tomorrow morning along with the Assault of Ba Sing Se and guess who I've recruited to lead the Van?"

"You're insane?"

"No private. Only somebody as insane as you and your unit would volunteer to be a part of the most dangerous part of the assault, but all the same, here you are, volunteering for it. I guess I have no choice but to grant it to you. So congratulations. Get your rest, private. You'll need it. You're dismissed."

"You're sacrificing the siege just to kill 3 kids you have a distaste for?"

"I'm not sacrificing anything. Worst case scenario, your unit is destroyed early. I'll ensure that the rest of the 15th armored keep a wide berth from you to avoid your potential wreckage falling on them when scaling the wall. It really is a brave thing you're doing, and I commend you. If, however, things go wrong, I'm sure we can find somebody to replace you. Well, don't let me keep you from letting that leg recover. You'll need it."

I turned around and waited, not at all focusing on the map, but waiting for him to try. To try and unsheathe his sword and save his own life and those of his crew, but not even he was so stupid. I heard the tent flap close behind me, and he was gone.

I looked at the city and made a note on the battle plans for the wall where I already had the movements laid out. Artillery would rain fire on the wall, clearing the top and weakening the structure. The 15th armored would scale the wall in their tanks and the 22nd infantry would storm through the wall once the 15th armored set the bombs on the other side and blow a chunk out of it. Now, however, the 15th armored had a near commander for the battle. I scribbled out Zand's name and wrote "Gan (Unit 350) right next to it. _Congratulations, Gan. You just made my job a hell of a lot easier._

 **Luke**

Gan walked in, throwing his helmet to the ground and crashing onto his cot, lifting his leg into it in a maneuver that had become the norm with him. At least we had cots now and not just sleeping rolls. Guess those were the only perks that came with promotion now that we weren't even officially promoted in the eyes of the 5th Corps. Didn't matter anyway. Was probably for the best too. It would mean we'd see less action.

"We're leading the Van during the siege." I heard Gan say on his cot.

"Wha-What?"

"When the battle for the wall comes, Zahckrael's putting us in the Van. We're leading it. By over a half mile's head start."

"You're fucking with me. What did you say to him?!"

"I told him to fuck himself."

"You what?! Are you trying to get us killed?"

Gan walked in at that moment, chewing on what was likely a part of his dinner that only he had decided to partake in. The food was getting worse here anyway and I wasn't hungry, so I rarely partook anymore. Lunch was generally all I ate anymore, and it wasn't much at that. "Somebody trying to get us killed?" he asked, completely oblivious as to just how fucked we were.

"We're leading the Van during the assault on the city." I said, before Gan could.

Gi Gu chuckled, saying "That's funny. Goodnight, guys."

"Zahckrael assigned us to the Van." Gan verified. "And we're leading it."

Gan swallowed whatever he was eating, not yet fully comprehending the situation we were in. "In the van? Leading it?"

"Yep."

"Why, might I ask?"

"I may have told the CO to fuck himself."

"You what?! Are you trying to get us killed?"

"That's exactly what I said." I commented. "Fucked minds think alike."

"What the hell are you doing? Why?" Gi Gu asked again.

"Because I was tired of his bullshit and I know you were too."

"Well, yeah, no shit we're tired of it, but you don't tell the CO to fuck himself!"

"It felt like a natural response to me."

"Is this funny to you?"

"Gu, nothing's funny to me anymore. I've killed more men than I can count without seeing their faces blend together and I'm tired of it. Figured I'd make it quick for myself."

"Except its not just yourself, dumbass. Guess who's in that tank with you!"

"Gan's kinda got a point." I responded, considering the events that had unfolded in the last month."

"You're taking **his** side?"

"Yeah. So what if he just got us killed? I'm just pissed that I wasn't with Gan to see the CO's face. Was it good, Gan?"

"Pretty good."

"There you go."

"I don't know about you." Started Gi Gu. "But I don't necessarily want to die with you assholes in that crammed tank when it comes to it. Know what I'm saying?"

"Then don't come." Suggested Gan

"What?"

"It's a tank. Who'll know you aren't in it? Look. I didn't go in there planning to get you idiots involved in this, but it just so turned out that way. Zahckrael wants us dead. That much is obvious and he's not going to stop. If we live on the climb, and through the assault, do you think he'll stop with us? He already threatened to have me executed. The first moment he finds in that battle, assuming we survive the climb, he'll have us killed by our own men. There's no surviving anymore."

"That's a dim view." I said.

"I thought you were with his side, Luke." Said Gi Gu, obviously annoyed by the speech Gan had just made.

"I'm on his side in that I understand his outburst, but that doesn't mean we have to die."

"Luke." Started Gan. "It's over for us. We're dead men walking. We'll be dead by month's end whether be it on those walls, past them, or in front of a firing squad. We're dead men. It can be avoided though."

"Really?!" exclaimed Gan, with a not-so-subtle hint of sarcasm. "How do we do this exactly?"

"We leave. Or at least you two do. I'm going up that wall but you two don't have to."

"Defect?" asked Gi Gu. "Are you insane? Go where? The Earth Kingdom. We'll be paste on the floor before we even get the chance to knock on their big ass wall and ask for a handout and I don't plan on swimming to the North Pole."

"Earth Kingdom's a big place. You two will be fine."

"No." this time, it was me that spoke. And I certainly had their attention. I was tired of this. Not of the war anymore. I was tired of this kind of talk. Giving up. We don't do that here.

"I don't care what you two do, but I'm not leaving. If you want to be traitors, go for it, but I'm staying."

"They'll kill us, Luke." Said Gan. "Don't do this."

"There's no discussing this. Rest your leg. Gu, if you're going to leave, get it over with and don't come back or I'll deal with you how a soldier should deal with deserters."

"I'm not leaving either."

"Good. Then get some sleep. Tomorrow, we start getting ready for the assault."

I turned off the light, still heated. _Desertion? What are they thinking? We chose to fight here, and they'd just leave? After all we've already done? Is that how man is supposed to act? T betray everything they've been fighting for, they've been killing for at the first sign of struggle?_

I closed my eyes but sleep never came. Not when the Earth was still, and not when it began to shake. I opened my eyes and saw it. The subtlest hint of it. Dust filling the room. Rocks shaking on the ground. The smallest of earthquakes, no, not earthquakes. We've seen too many ambushes to make that mistake again. "Ambush"

That woke them up, or at least got them to head start before the battle broke out. By the time the yelling outside started, I already had my boots on and had grabbed my helmet. I opened the tent flap and ran outside to see the situation. And it wasn't good. Tents were afire, mounts were stampeding, the camp was in chaos. I saw the soldiers running. Running south. Into the slight wood cover they could find. _I guess all ambushers think alike._ I thought to myself with a smile, remembering what Danev had told me of his own similar maneuver.

By the time I had it figured out, I was joined by Gan and Gi Gu who had barely assembled armor on them and were sloppily holding their weapons. It would do. The ambushers wouldn't expect resistance from us, but we, no, I knew their plan and we were going to be their when they tried.

"The soldiers are going south!" Gi Gu said. "Let's join them!" I put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Yes. That's where the distraction is, but not where the target is."

"What do you mean?"

"The Earth Kingdom could've done this week ago, but now, the siege is about to begin, we have our artillery in place, and they've become desperate."

"So?" asked Gan.

"Gan." I said. "You're leg's busted. Grab your bow and stay in the tent. Gu, you're with me. I want to check out the artillery?"

"The artillery?"

"Trust me. Gan, you heard me?"

He nodded, seemingly annoyed with me being the one giving him orders, but he submitted, saying "I'll stay in the tent."

I nodded at him, and then to Gi Gu and we set off. The artillery was to the East, at the rear of the camp, protected by a series of trenches and sentried, but the Earth Kingdom skirmishers, assuming they had done their job properly, would have lured them elsewhere. The Earth Kingdom, more likely than not, was here to destroy our artillery and cripple this flank to focus on Iroh when he made his attack. That wouldn't happen.

We made our way up the hill atop which the artillery was positioned and saw them. The Earth Kingdom ambushers, barrels of blasting jelly in tow, with likely un-patriotic intent. The closest soldiers had come out from the forest cover and we no less than 200 feet away. It'd be a close one, but a good way to get the jump on them. I chose the target, carried between two soldiers and fired.

The wood of the barrel was lit aflame and it took the soldiers a second to realize the danger they were in. A second too long. The barrel exploded, lighting the radius in a brilliant light and fire swept over the grass and chunks of burning wood flew in the air. Then, Gi Gu and I made our attack.

We came upon the disorganized soldier, or at least what was left of them.

It was over as soon as it began and in the blink of an eye. The soldiers were dead. I didn't even remember killing them. I just saw the bodies afterwards, sprawled across the field, and Gi Gu clutching his arm.

I walked up to him and motioned for him to show me the wound. He was fine. Just some bleeding. He'd put on a bandage and sleep it off.

The camp was silent. The attackers were dead, and the distraction would be routed soon enough. I didn't intend on staying by my handiwork. I sheathed my own blade, grabbed Gi Gu, and left, going back through the camp to our own tent.

The look on my face alone after I took off my helmet must've been enough to get Gan to lower his crossbow which he had had pointed at the entrance. I went over to the wash bucket and wiped the blood off of my face that had somewhere made its way through the gaps in my helmet and I took off the armor, ready to finally get some sleep.

I sat down on my cot, and saw the two of them, just, staring at me. They looked like they had a million things to say, but they would say none of it. I would.

"We're not defecting. Not me, not you, or you. We joined this army. Maybe not out of patriotism or a love for our nation, but we signed up for this and we're going through with it. We'll climb that wall. We'll kill every last Earth Kingdom soldier in our way and we won't be stopped. We'll get over that wall and we'll keep on killing until there's no doubting our intentions. I doubt Zahckrael will ever look on us with kind eyes, but he won't have to. Our actions will speak for us. We're going to scale that wall and we're going to be the soldiers we've been for the last month. We're fighters. And there's no stopping us. So no more talk about deserting. We're going to fight when the time comes and we're going to win. We've stuck together for the last few months now. We're a team and we don't part until we're all dead. We're in this war now and after the things we've done, nobody will accept us. Not the Earth Kingdom, not the Water Tribe, not even the Air Nomads if we were still alive. The people back in the capital may even look at us like we're monsters for the things we've done. Just look at us. I don't even remember killing a single soldier out there just a few minutes ago. I practically slept right through it. We're not normal people. Not anymore, but we'll fight, and we'll win."

I didn't wait for a response. I killed the flame lighting the tent without so much as looking at it and got some sleep, finally.

And of course, the next morning began as Zahckrael had promise it would. We woke to the sounds of catapults, trebuchets, scorpions, ballistas, and cannons firing and knew, that finally, after months of waiting, the Assault on Ba Sing Se, had begun.


	32. Chapter 30: The Siege: Part 2: Assault

**Zahckrael**

It was all laid out. All of the map was as organized as it should be. The pieces were in place. The tanks at the front, the infantry in the rear. It was all laid out. All ready. It was finally here. We've been waiting outside of this city for two months, and now, finally, we were taking it down. We got here in early March and it was already the beginning of May. We had no right staying here this long. Not when the Dragon of the West himself was outside these walls, but then again, I imagine that's why we were called here. To fill the role he couldn't.

He couldn't do this alone. His own life dream of taking Ba Sing Se he couldn't pull off and so here we were. In a way, it was an honor, to be the influential role in the fall of not only the greatest city known to man, but the end of the largest nation known to man. I would be here the day the Earth Kingdom fell. I've endured enough in this army and now it was all paying off. I was going to bring this city to its knees. And it all began today.

I heard the tent flap open and raised my head to see who it was. I had rearranged my desk so now I was never facing opposite whoever came in. I wanted the advantage over whoever walked in on me and wasn't planning on letting it fall to anyone else anymore. Luckily, it wasn't Gan or one of his other Unit 350 shits. No. It was just my two commanders. Commander "insubordinate" and commander "fuck-up". When this war was over, I'd be promoted. So would they, but that wouldn't matter. So long as we were far enough away in the chain of command I would never have to worry about them again. Zor'ak should've been executed by now if it weren't for his lack of a replacement for himself. With any luck, once the infantry breached the outer walls, he would fall in combat and the infantry would roam wild, killing all in their way. I only needed his command for getting past the outer wall. The inner walls would be far easier to breach. Once they were breached, then I wouldn't complain if Zand fell in combat likewise. Once we were in the city, I'd have no need for them. And if they did fall, all the more glory for me.

"Sit. Both of you." They sat. I was tired of the mistakes they'd made in the past and realized I gave them too much freedom to do as they saw fit. No more of that. I would keep firm control over them from now on. Victory was at hand, and I wouldn't dare let the likes of them claim it for themselves. "You got your orders, then?"

"Yes." Replied Zand. "This morning. Thanks for the advance warning about the assault." He doesn't seem particularly happy. So he has qualms with the invasion plan. What of it? He wouldn't voice his concerns. Not loudly of course. He would be defiant. Say "no" a couple of times, but he'd back down like he always did when he remembered who was in charge. I doubted sentimentality would get the better of him. "Is that a complaint?" I challenged.

He did as I expected, backing down, saying "No sir."

I looked to Zor'ak next, daring him to step past his bounds and resurface all the mistakes he'd made in the last month alone.

This siege had been going on for over 2 weeks now. The sky was gray with the smoke of the artillery and fire and over a dozen starless nights had gone by. I doubted either of them were going to complain about ending this siege as soon as possible. At least, that's what I thought.

"Then you're dismissed. Assemble your divisions as per your orders and get in position for the assault. You have your time-marks. Follow them. I will be commanding from my pavilion."

Zand thought I didn't see the look in his eyes that screamed "Of course you will, sir." I had changed my expectation for this meeting regarding him. Zor'ak would be the loyal dog I threatened him into being and would voice no concerns. Zand on the others hand, well, he used to be loyal, and now he thought he could use that as leverage. He would remain, and I'd be forced to put him in his place. Again. "Then you may leave." I said, dismissing them, or rather, Zor'ak alone. And of course, Zand stayed. _And so it begins._

"Tell me these orders are a joke."

"Those are your orders, and this is a military matter of vital importance to the Fire Nation. There is no room for jokes here."

"Really? Because I myself find putting one tank of 12-14-year-old children at the front of the assault to be rather humorous."

"What you find funny or not is of no concern to me. Those are your orders."

"So you don't find it funny then? Or strange perhaps? Putting them at the front of this 'vital military matter.'" And there he lost all subtlety. "You are putting one tank. One tank! Of children at the front of this invasion. Not even a squad, just one damn unit! Are you insane?! Not only are you going to get them killed instantly, you're putting this invasion in jeopardy just because what? They won a battle without you?!"

"They defected from the 5th Corps and lent their services to the Dragon's Host!"

"Because you urged me to send them on an already suicidal mission north of the city, through those mountains that, let me guess, you knew were trapped, to Iroh's camp with the sole purpose of assisting the Fire Nation in taking down that listening post!"

"I ordered them to deliver a message to Iroh's camp. Nothing more!"

"Oh Boo-Hoo. They went above and beyond to save this siege and you're mad because you got none of the glory for it. I noticed they didn't get their promotions yet. Where are their patches? You keeping them hidden somewhere or were you really so petty as to burn them?"

"Zand. I'm warning you."

"What. You'll kill me if I keep on talking out. You're an idiot, but you're a glory hound too. You can, at least in your mind, get away with killing one friendly tank, but a commander of hundreds of those tanks, well, you're not as dumb, believe it or not, to kill someone like that."

He was pushing me. Far more than he knew. He was asking to be executed on the spot. But he was right. I did need him. For now. Maybe I wouldn't need him to get past the inner wall. I guess I'd find out. For better or worse. "Leave. Now. Or you'll be leading the 15th armored from a prison truck"

His resolve hadn't weakened. I hadn't scared him. He just knew he was getting nowhere. It was true. He wasn't. He raised his hands to his forehead in a slow salute, muttering "Sir. Yes. Sir" before leaving.

I looked at the time on the stop-watch on my desk. It was 7 hours past midnight. The assault began in one hour sharp.

I looked back to my command map, where I did still have Unit 350 at the forefront of the action. I only had one small change to make. I pushed Zand's command vehicle to the front of the main tank line, right behind Unit 350 where he would accompany the rest of Squad 5, Unit 350's previous squad, commanded by a somewhat recovered Staff Sergeant Zaedra: a man I could actually trust. _If things went as I'd hoped, Unit 350 would fall. The sight of it would enrage the rest of the troops, marking the Earth kingdom as child-killers, and they'd promptly slaughter the city's defenders out of a sense of justice. Yes. The plan was sound. Then again, the death of a commander would also strengthen the anger of their troops._ I pushed Zand's command vehicle even father ahead, parallel to Unit 350.

Yes. Everything was going to work out perfectly.

 **Iroh**

If my courier had come up to me, 10 years ago, telling me I would be sending my own son into the heart of a war to near certain death, I would have had him exiled, maybe killed even. Most knew me as a temperate man, but there were some things I wouldn't tolerate. Then again, I was younger 10 years ago. Angrier, more ambitious. In the last 10 years, I'd lost many of my old desires. I'd lost my desire to slay the last of the Dragons. I'd lost my desire to trump my brother at every moment. I'd lost many things, but there was one desire I held above all: To see my son live in a world free of war and conflict. I'd failed that for the last 20 years, but now, maybe, I could do good on that promise I made to myself all those years ago. Right below that, and somewhat connected to that desire, was to bring down Ba Sing Se. A goal of mine even before Lu Ten was born. The supposed impregnable city. It was my goal to do what couldn't be done, and here I was. Today was it. Today. I put all on the line. My men, my career, my son, all for the possibility of a better future.

At that moment, the boy, no, the man himself came in. There were days, as a father, that you looked at your son and wondered where the years had gone. Today was one of those days. He, in his red, black, and gold armor, ready to put his life on the line for a war that should have ended decades before his birth, yet here he was, ready to end it for good. I was proud of him and scared for him at the same time. Proud for the adult he had grown into. Kind, sympathetic, brave, determined, and good. Good most of all. I was more eager for his reign as Fire Lord than I was for mine own. Maybe I would abdicate early for the chance to see him sit that throne. I knew he would be far better at it than I would ever be, and he would lead the Fire Nation to prosperity. Why delay it by wasting time on my reign when he would be so better suited?

 _No. Now's not the time to focus on the future. That future is determined by what happens today. That's where I need my mind to be. On the present._ "Are your men ready?"

"They are sir. Are you sure about this?"

"I am. It's no small task giving you command of the Host, but don't let it get to your head." I smiled. "It's only for today. Once the day is won and the wall is breached. I expect you to hand the host right back to me."

"Of course, father, but, 5,000 men. All under my command?"

"Not all under your command. You have your commanders and captains, but yes. You'll be above them all today.

"Once again. Are you really sure about this?"

"I am. I know you are ready, and I want you at my side. I trust none of my commanders more than I do you. I need you to see what I miss and fix what I get wrong."

"Then I should have a pretty easy job."

I chuckled. "You put too much faith in me."

"For good reason, father. Look how far you got us. We're here. The siege is today and we're going to win. I know it. The men do too. They believe in you. They know you won't let us down."

"We're only half of this operation. The 5th Corps has their own job as well."

"Would you like me to go there, instead? Reinforce their lines with the Crimson Battalion. They could use the backup."

"No. If all goes to plan. We should create a big enough diversion and lure their troops all to our position. We must hold out and create time for the 5th Corps to breach or scale the walls. Once that's done and the enemy is busy fighting the infiltrators, we should be able to scale the walls and finish this."

"Assuming their do as they're told."

"Assuming they do as they're told." I echoed. I trusted Zahckrael as far as I could throw him, but he would go where glory called for him. Being able to be the first to breach the walls and pave the way for our host to move in, he wouldn't turn that down. "He'll do as he's bid. It's in his best interest to do so."

"Hopefully so. The army's no different than one of our tanks. If one screw is loose, the entire machine is doomed."

"You've learned well. You will make a fine leader of men in your future. I can see that."

"So long as my place is on the battlefield with my men, I'll never stop fighting for those that look up to me."

 _Yes. He'll make for one of the greatest rulers the Fire Nation has ever seen._

"I'm glad to hear that. Then rally your men. We march in 5 minutes."

He smiled, nodded, and placed his helmet over his head, a beautiful helm of red and black paint overlaid in a gold dragon. The helm of a leader of men. "I'll see you on the battlefield, father." And with that final comment, he left the tent and set off towards a father's worst nightmare.

 **Luke**

"Got all your gear?" Asked Gan from the driver's seat as he made last minute checks on all the tank systems.

I crawled out of the tank hatch, grabbing the last item being handed to me by Gan, my short sword. _Can't believe I almost forgot that._ "Do now. Armor, sword, helmet, and canteen."

"Water?" asked Gi Gu from behind me as he closed the rear tank hatch, crawling on top of the tank to sit down in the cool breeze of the morning. "You really expecting us to live long enough to get thirsty?"

"Who said it's for drinking. I may have to piss mid-battle."

"Oh. You're funny."

"I try my best." I had had my seat lowered and Gan crawled out of the top hatch, also positioning himself on the top of the tank with Gi Gu where I promptly joined then, placing my helmet next to my seat, not needing it at the moment. On top of the tank, at the front of the vanguard, well, we were able to see everything. We were at the very front of the tank, overlooking the field of desolation in front of us. The grass was green for another mile until it wasn't, about 100 yards away from the wall. There, the craters began. Misfires and shots too low. The ground was black with upturned dirt going as far as the horizon to the north and south, obviously a result of the extended artillery lines. As you looked up, going up the height of the wall, you could see the ashes, the craters, the shoddy repair jobs by the Earth benders who risked it all to make small patches for the wall while artillery still rained down. Obvious to say, none of them would live to long to make any real repairs to the wall. From where I was, you could even see some of the dried blood on the walls coupled with more grotesque bits of the human body, jammed into the wall by the pure force of the artillery. Nasty stuff. Then even higher than that, you could see the ruins of the top of the wall, completely abandoned by all life, and then, finally above that, replacing what was supposed to be a clear grey sky was just gray. Not a light gray of early morning storm clouds, but a dark gray that told tales of war and might continue to for years to come if this war didn't end today.

"Commander on Deck!" I heard Gan's voice yell to my left and turned to see Zand pull his command tank next to ours, emerging from the hatch and stepping down, motioning for us to follow suit. We did, and were now face to face with him, or rather, as face to face as we could be given our deficiency in height that came with the younger age. We all saluted, and he saluted us in return until he bid us be "at ease." We lowered our salutes and stood in position as he circled our tank, going around the entire machine before coming back to where we stood.

"So I assume you're well aware of your position in the battle?"

"We're leading the Vanguard, sir!" Gan answered.

"Yes. A great honor if there's actually a vanguard to accompany you. It's only you though. Isn't it."

"It is." I answered, interested to see what exactly he was getting at. I didn't really know any of my commanders, but I knew enough about Zand to know he was a better alternative to Zahckrael.

"Then you know it's suicide."

"We got that impression." Said Gi Gu, as unaware of formality as always.

"Then maybe you'll listen to what I have to say with interest."

"That being?" I asked.

"See that hill in the distance. It blocks the view of the 15th division as we ride towards the wall. We'd be completely obscured from view. Now, the battle will get hectic and you could always fall behind with the rest of the 15th armored, but don't doubt Zahckrael will be keeping his eyes on your unit in particular, waiting for you to get crushed by Earth Bender rocks. That can be avoided."

"You talked with him, then?" asked Gi Gu. "Convinced him not to completely screw us over?"

I saw Gan nudge him with his elbow before Gi Gu could continue, sparing not just Gi Gu, but his entire Unit from the embarrassment that would have ensued should he have continued.

"Not quite. But I talked with the crew of the Iron Gauntlet and we agree you are completely unfit to lead anything. Much less the vanguard."

"Gee. Thanks." I said.

"So. We've decided that you'll take the place of the Iron Gauntlet. I'll take your place at the front, and the Iron Gauntlet will take my old place."

"We'll still be at the front of the main force though." Complained Gi Gu.

"Better than where we were before." Gan replied.

"It is" verified Zand. Don't think you're out of the woods yet though. We still have a hell of a battle in front of us. When we get to that hill, we'll switch places and you'll position yourself with the rest of the main force. All the same, you'll be in the thick of the fighting. Keep your hatches closed and locked. Reduce your viewports to only slits. Nothing large enough to let even an arrow slip through and go through on of your throats. Be ready to do your jobs and don't take any stupid risks. Dismissed."

"Sir yes sir!" we all replied in unison before returning to our original spots atop the tank. "Wait." I called, getting Zand's attention for one final question. "What time is it?"

"We leave in 30 minutes. Take a nap. You'll need it."

"Aye aye, sir." Replied Gi Gu, sliding down the hull of the tank into a lying position, shutting his eyes, unbothered by the lack of a sun to hamper his sleeping efforts.

"Why don't you say anything?" Gan asked.

"About what?"

"About the ambush. You saved this entire siege from being set back by months."

"You were there too. Why don't you say something?"

"Because I was considering desertion that same night, remember? You practically had to drag me and Gu out into the fight before we did anything."

"Practically?" I questioned. "I quite literally had to pull you asshats out from that tent."

"All the same. You deserve credit for what you did."

"Look. The end of the war begins today. That's good enough for me."

"Good enough for you? I didn't realize you were anticipating the end. You were practically born in war, being in the slums and all."

"I was. But I only fight well if I'm fighting to meet a goal. Right now, that's the end of the war. I can worry about what to do after once the war's over."

"Fair enough. How about you, Gi Gu? Any plans once the war's over."

"Me? Well. I plan on using my riches from the siege to built a town so large I-"

Then the horn blew. Nobody moved. Then it blew again, and I realized the break was over. It was coming.

"I thought Zand said thirty minutes." Said Gi Gu, rubbing his eyes, rising from his lying position.

"No. No." said Gan. "That can't be for the attack."

And as though on cue, The Lieutenant General Zahckrael himself pulled up next to the formation of tanks yelling "The wall is clear! Now's our chance! Attack!"

Zand, having just entered his own tank, was the only one to object saying "Sir. We have orders from the Dragon. We're not to attack until-"

"Until I say so, Major. Now Attack!"

And at that point, there was no more objection to be had. We entered the tank, got into our seats, and waited for the third and final horn. The horn that would tell us to put our feet to the pedals and ride to the war that awaited us. And that horn finally came after what felt like hours and at this point, the jolt of the tank no longer affected me. We advanced. Advanced towards the end. Towards victory. And for some reason, there was an enduring knot in my stomach that had me convinced that my life was nearing its end.

 **Long Feng**

I wasn't called to the meeting. I was just there by "convenience" when the messenger ran in with the news. The wall was being assaulted from the Southwest. _My scouts are quicker._ The messenger was unable to convey his message without stuttering until he was shaken out of his shock by General How. It was only then that he was able to relay the numbers of the attacking force. _My men are more intelligible and calmer under pressure._ Eventually, however, the news was relayed. And it wasn't particularly good to here.

"The wall is under attack!" announced General How to the rest of the Council of Five. _So. They wouldn't kick me out._ I was only here by "convenience" after all, discussing proper allocation of police in the inner district. Generally, even in my position, I wouldn't be present in a meeting of the Council of Five, but here I was, and nobody was asking me to leave.

"We must retaliate immediately!" called out General Sung, an incompetent General who rose to his rank by allocating responsibility to others who actually knew what they were doing, but here he was. Unfortunately.

"Agreed" stated How, now referring to the map of Ba Sing Se. Where there normally was a map of the world, there was a far more detailed map of the city, complete with hidden passageways, defensive checkpoints, current troop garrisons, etc. The war room was rather empty today, occupied only by Generals Sung, How, and Kozad. Generals Hondu and Sodhru were manning the walls. How was actually a competent commander, one I trusted would keep this city alive for at least a few more months. I couldn't say the same for Sodhru. There was a reason he and Sung were here and not atop the walls.

How motioned to the Southwest portion of the wall, moving the pieces indicating Fire Nation troops right to the walls. There was only a company stationed at this point of the wall. If there was one thing our city was lacking most of, it was manpower. All the same, 1 man atop a wall can be worth 100 below if used properly. All the same, pitted against the Dragon's entire Host, there was little that could be done. "More men are needed" stated Sung, somehow proud of himself for his 'genius' observation, ignoring what it meant for the city as a whole.

"That much is obvious." Answered How, obviously annoyed with Sung's incompetence."

This time, it was Sodhru who spoke. "We can take the troops from the Northeast portion of the wall to reinforce the Southwest."

"Agreed. Send a messenger to-"

Another messenger entered the room. This time, however, he was one of mine. The generals noticed this too, particularly How who was known not to be fond of my use of secret police.

"What is the meaning of this?"

My agent, just as they had been trained, retained composure, breath, and stature, and spoke straight to me, and me only. I heard the message and sent him off. _So my agents are more reliable too._

"Long Feng. You are not permitted to even be a part of this meeting. If you wish to stay, you will discuss what was just told to you." _No harm in saying we were in deeper trouble than we already presumed._

"Belay that order." I spoke to How, referring to his order to divert men from the Northeast. "The Northeast portion of the wall was just assaulted."

"Oh spirits" said Sung from where he was standing by the city map. We're doomed." _The fool. He didn't see how lucky we just were._ How did however. I could see the sweat on his brow that resonated that which was shed by somebody who nearly made a fatal mistake.

"We're lucky." He said. "A minute later and we would have sent all our troops away from there."

It was my turn to speak now. "They're attacks are ill-timed. We can use that to our advantage."

"That we can." He turned to my messenger and spoke. "Have the Southwest portions sprung the trap yet?" My messenger turned to me, wondering whether he would speak it only to me or gain permission to speak his answer aloud. I nodded, giving him leave to speak. _My men are more loyal too._

"The attack has been sprung, sir."

"And?"

"Fire Nation casualties at 5 tanks. The traps were absorbed with ease. They were sprung to early, only catching the vanguard and the front of the line."

"Has the Fire Nation begun scaling the Northeast of the Wall then?"

"No. Not yet."

"Good. Send a hawk to then telling them to spring the trap only when the center of the main force is in front of them. And prepare a tram for me."

"Sir?" spoke Sung. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the wall to oversee the defense. Long Feng, I'll need the surveillance of your scouts. Can you reroute them to me?"

"I can indeed, General."

"Will you be so kind?"

"I will. They will be under your command for the remainder of the assault." _Those I give to you, that is. If it means getting you off my back and in my pocket._

"Good. Sung, give the order for our troops garrisoning the inner walls to move by tram to the outer walls and prepare a defense at the top. And Sodhru, send a raven to our troops within the walls to surface. Now that the attack is underway, the artillery would have stopped."

"Yes sir!"

"Yes sir!"

How left for the outer wall, leaving me alone in the War room as the two other generals moved off to their respected tasks. _Maybe loyalty did thrive here as well. Although, loyalty based on personal gain never lasted. Only loyalty instilled in people as their core foundation created a truly loyal servant._

The first batch of soldiers came out of Lake Laogai yesterday. Although, they weren't soldiers anymore, no. They were Dai Li. And they were mine.

 **Luke**

The artillery had stopped. We were right below the walls. Unit 350 was where Zand had told us to be. We weren't first in line this time, but more so third. Directly in front of us was the Iron Gauntlet and in front of them, Zand's command craft. At the very front of the line. The tanks came to a stop directly in front of the wall, awaiting what came next.

We all knew that this was where the fun began, but all the same, it didn't feel right. We weren't supposed to be here. Not yet. I couldn't shake the feeling that this was all wrong. Though, then again, it was too late for second thoughts now.

Zand's tank aimed the grappling hook up at what seemed to be an 85-degree angle and fired. The hook caught, was yanked to test it strength, and the first tank began its ascent. Then was the iron gauntlet, it fired, and began its ascent as well. And then it was us, but we weren't alone. Our tanks were in a tight formation. 15 columns of ten tanks. And we were in the center, 14 other tanks to our sides. 7 to the left. 7 to the right. The synchronization of it was beautiful. A single working machine, moving forward to the wall as one, angling our ascension hooks as one, and firing as one, the echo of the rattling of the guns and tanks creating a single loud boom of mechanical marvel. The tanks tested their hook and drove.

The shift in angle was sudden rather than gradual in any way. One moment we were flat on the ground, and next, well, I could hear all of our unfastened equipment falling to the back of the tank, my helmet included. _Well, that's against protocol._ There was no fixing that now. I remembered what Zand told us and checked my hatch. It was closed and locked. _Good._

I looked out the gunner's viewport and saw I was looking straight up at the dark gray sky that threatened rain at any moment, but never delivered as it wasn't gaseous water giving those clouds that grayish tint, but rather the sorrows of war.

I could see the height of the wall now. I remembered what I had read. 330 feet tall. It sounded small when read in a book, but when you remembered that you could stack ho humans on top of each other and not even get close to getting to the top, you got a perspective of just how tall it was. And now, these tanks scaling that wall, well, you definitely felt its height every foot you advanced forward.

Being the center of our line, our grappling hook went over two other tanks, being those of Zand and Zaedra, but it was rather harmless, the links merely scraping against their hull, doing no harm as the hooks of those behind us did the same with our own vehicles.

The tanks lumbered forward. There was no resistance to be felt. Could Zahckrael have been right? Was this really the opening we needed? Was the wall really that clear for us to get over that easily?

Of course. It wasn't. I could finally see the top of the wall and get that hint o hope when I felt the rumbling of the wall. I didn't know what it was until I looked through my port and saw hundreds of grappling lines unhook themselves from the wall, falling hundreds of feet down to the surface, crashing into our tanks and clattering off. I had no idea what was going on and couldn't even hear the yelling inside my own tank, too questioning of what the hell was happening. I turned the gunner port around with my seat, no longer facing straight up, but straight down, expecting to see over one hundred tanks still sitting there. However, that wasn't what I saw. What I did see was the ruins of what was once that portion of the wall, reduced to rubble, falling to the earth's surface, with it, carrying over 300 hundred Fire Nation soldiers in tanks that I could no longer see under the piles of rock and dust that had accumulated at the base of the wall.

And from that point on, there was really no point denying just how screwed we were. "Oh shit" was what I heard coming from Gan's seat. When I turned around to look upon what he was seeing, that's when I saw it.

Our tanks were stopped. Dead in our tracks. I wasn't sure if it was because all drivers had just decided to stop moving, or if we were literally being held in place by the wall and those manning it. I looked above, back towards the sky, and saw them, over 500 Earth Kingdom soldiers, clad in dark green clothing, hats shading their eyes, ready for the kill. It was once continuous motion and I knew what it would result in. I wasn't waiting. I fired the first blast before the last piece of the wall took us down to our graves.

The blast struck, the man fell, and the battle, no, the slaughter began. Only one row of tanks persisted behind ours. That, coupled with Zand and the Iron Gauntlet, meant only 32 tanks. 32 tanks against 500 soldiers. Maybe that sounded fair, but when you were in a position like that, I guarantee you, it wasn't.

The rocks came down, and the crossbow bolts went up. It was hard to remember that I was the Only firebender in the 15th armored, but today it showed. There were some undeniable truths in this world. Chief among them being that when it came to a clash between a bender and a nonbender, the bender will likely win. And it showed.

Some of the bolts found their marks, more didn't. More of the Earth Bender rocks did find their marks, however. I didn't have to see them go down, I just had to hear the screeching and clanging of metal as steel plates were warped beyond all repair and disconnected from their lifelines, plummeting to their cold graves below. I fired my shots, keeping us alive as long as I could, but we were sitting ducks. There was only one direction we could go: up. There was no left. No right. No down without death. Only up.

There was no time to become distracted by the death around us. There was only survival at this point in time. It was that way when the tank to our right went down. It was that way when the tank to our left went down. It was that way when a boulder took off the top half of Zand's command vehicle, sending it plummeting straight down into the Iron Gauntlet, completely crushing it, and sending it down to the growing pile of metal and bodies below, just narrowly missing our own tomb.

And then. It was only us. And we fought. I fired another blast, catching an Earth Bender in the arm, sending him backwards. I shot another one, catching one in the leg, sending him off of the wall while I saw a crossbow bolt make it way into one of their necks, sending that one down in a tumble of green robes as well. I saw another bender move into position right above us, gathering a piece of the wall, breaking it apart, and reshaping the shards into dozens of small spikes, more than small enough to get into the tank's opening, no doubt what the bastard intended. I readied myself to take the shot, but it was too late. There were coming down. There was one thing to do. I ducked. I heard the clanging of the shards against steel and took the moment of respite to fire. I ignored the yelling inside my tank, oblivious to what they were regarding, and I fired my blast and it caught him square in the chest, sending him backwards, hopefully dead. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gi Gu, a bloodied shard entering through the front of his neck and exiting through the back of his seat, blood red. I cleared my mind. There wasn't time to worry about that. He'd be fine. I moved to make another blast until a rock the size of a single bed crashed straight into my gunner's port, sealing the opening shut, blocking my view of anything at all. I was cut off. "Luke!" I heard Gan yell from the driver's seat and looked down, only then noticing the earthen shard that had taken him in his shoulder and more importantly, saw the Earth Bender raising a boulder twice the size of our tank and I took the chance. I opened the hatch, stuck out, and fired. He was hit, dropped his rock, fell.

The rock hit. Not as hard as it would have, but it hit, scraping against the port side of the tank, devastating the port side. I looked to my right to the wall and saw the other Earth benders, attention completely towards us and ducked right back inside the tank the second before a rock hit where the hatch had previously been, caving it in. There was no way for me to fight here. We were unarmed.

I unbuckled myself and crawled up to the driver's seat. I looked over to Gi Gu, knowing, but refusing to acknowledge him. The slight tumble downward accounted for a miss from those aiming at us, but it would last. The front viewport was too small for me to shoot through, but it was enough to see what was coming. "Gan! Detach!"

He knew there was no choice. He cut the cable, and we fell. It was a straight fall and I saw the rocks miss. He fired the spare chord in the nick of time and it caught the wall once again, going right through a soldier who had been at the top, using both the wall, and his body as an anchor.

It wasn't enough, and the same rocks shards came down again. I turned my face away and raised my arms to protect my head and felt the pain in my arms, lowering them once it was over, ignoring the rock spike that had lodged itself in my forearm. One had taken Gan in the left shoulder and the attack was coming again. Rock and spikes alike. We were dead. Unless. "Gan. We have to detach!"

"We have no spares." He muttered between blood filled coughs, spitting out the blood only onto himself thanks to gravity.

"It's that or we die."

He nodded his head, but nothing happened. He couldn't move his arm. I saw the look in his eyes as he looked towards me, unaware if it was him apologizing or readying himself to say some last words. I told myself he wouldn't need to, and I reached over, pushed the dead Gi Gu out of his seat, buckled myself in, reached over to Gan's side, and cut the connection. And then we were falling. I heard and saw the crashing of the rocks above us as they exploded, and it was the last thing I saw before the world went dark.


	33. Chapter 31: Survival

**Luke**

The first thing I remember thinking of was trying to remember how many people I killed that week. The number still couldn't come to my head.

It's interesting how when people always talk about near death experiences, they always talk about how they thought they were dead. About how when the world goes black they assume that's it. It's over. I've had that feeling before. Back in Citadel on many an occasion. So I knew at that moment, when I heard my breath, that I, somehow, was alive.

Everything around me was dark. There was no light to indicate how deep down I was, how many layers were between me and the open sky, and just how screwed I was. Then again, was I really alive? Maybe I was still breathing, but calling the situation I was in one of live would be a gross miscalculation.

The air was still, stale. Wherever I was, it stunk of smoke, gasoline, and death. Then again, I knew exactly where I was. I doubted I would have moved or been moved in my state of unconsciousness, but all the same, I had to make sure that wherever I was, I was where I had left off before the world went dark. I had to see if the world around me was still black or I had merely lost my sense of sight.

I tried to create a flame in my right hand, but nothing occurred. Then I realized I couldn't even feel the hand. Or the arm. I felt the pain in the shoulder, but that was the extent of it. And then I began to panic. _Was I being restrained? Was I captive somewhere?_ I retried the process, but with my other hand, and felt relief when the first spark generated, assuring me that I hadn't gone blind. The spark, under my care, soon became a flame, and I saw my new world around me. I set the flame to the side, sparking a piece of cloth lying on the tanks ground, or what could had been its wall, or even ceiling. I had no idea what orientation the tank was in, but I suspected we were on our side by from what I had seen thus far.

The tank was hardly in the best of conditions. The first thing I saw was the gunner's seat, _my seat,_ caved in by brown and black rocks, crushing the viewport and the chair, rendering any of the tank's capabilities inoperable. _Not that it mattered. Not anymore. The crew was-_

Then I remembered. "Gan!" I almost heard myself yell to myself as I struggled to get up, turning left to where the driver's seat would be. It was still there. And so was he. He was still strapped into his seat, staring blankly ahead of him with dead eyes, as shards of broken rock, glass, and metal protruded from every part of his body, rendering him a human porcupine. No spot on his body was clean of blood and guts. It didn't take a genius to know he was gone.

 _Was it quick?_ Was all I could bear to ask myself. I convinced myself he would have died either way, but by cutting the tank's connection to the wall, did I merely condemn him to a death of pain and suffering rather than the one that would have ensued had we stayed in that very spot?

I was alive though. I saved myself. For whatever it was worth. I looked at Gan again and remembered Gi Gu. I knew he was dead. He was when I pushed his corpse out of that seat, but where was he?

I moved my body around, having no control over my legs, and turned behind me towards the "back" of the tank, but only saw rocks and debris with a mangled leg poking out accompanied by an arm. Sad thing was that it could've been anyone. Hell, could've been my right arm. On that thought, I checked my own right arm and saw the state it was in. A rock spike, taking on the form of a small stalagmite, had entered and exited through my right forearm, entering clean and well formed, and exiting mangled, bloody, and gory.

I saw no bone so that was some consolation, but that arm wouldn't be usable for the next few months by the way it looked. The arm was broken too as I could tell. I had no feeling in it and it wasn't particularly shaped like a human arm anymore, but rather a tangled piece of rope. I looked away before it became too much to look at and returned to the issue at hand. The issue that was always of the most paramount import. _Ow the hell am I getting out of this?_

I had no time to think about Gan or Gi Gu, or of the Earth Kingdom, the War, any of that. I was buried alive, running out of air, and I had to survive this. I looked to my legs and saw what had rendered them inoperable. Well, putting it simply, they weren't there. Well. Not quite that extreme. I wanted to think they were there. I could feel my toes. _Or that could just be phantom pain._ All the same, I saw they were simply crushed. _Simply. Fun word._

They weren't crushed by rocks. The hull of the tank had warped around my legs and were holding them in place. So it wasn't exactly crushing my legs, but snaring them more like. I tried moving my right leg and saw motion. I repeated the test with my left and, ignoring the pain that resulted from such tests, determined that not only did I still have legs, but they were still usable, and were merely snared.

I moved my body into a sitting position, inadvertently extorting myself with the effort, resulting in heavy breathing and a prompt discovery of my limited supply of usable oxygen around me. I couldn't afford heavy breathing. Every breath I took would have to be careful and deliberate.

Slowly, I bent forwards, to the point that the top of my head was brushing against the top of the tank and managed to reach my legs. There was about a half inch of space between my leg and the steel encasing it. At least with my right leg. I'd deal with the left soon enough. A half inch, all the same, would suffice.

I looked around me for something long and hard and found what had once been a steam pipe in the tank, broken off from the collision. I grabbed it, pulling it towards me and checking the diameter to ensure it'd suffice.

It would.

I moved my leg as far to once side of the gap as I could and slid the metal pipe between it and the gap. The steel was thin, and should prove easy to warp. Indeed, in its broken and mangled state, it did. I pried the pipe inside, and using that, managed to shift the metal away from my leg, providing ample space to free it, only needing to adjust it once more to free my foot.

Then came my left, far more entrapped than the right had been. There was no space to pry the pipe. It was without a doubt trapped. I tried kicking the metal, hoping to warp it to once side to try to create a gap, but was only met with failure in the form of the metal shifting only a centimeter, scraping against my leg, tearing the leggings and my skin alike, in a combination I didn't particularly care for. I didn't dare the pipe, knowing it would be the same result, but all the more painful.

I dropped the pipe, and thought. Thought of some clever way out of this, but thought of nothing. The room was becoming dark again. It took me a minute of deliberation to determine if it was me, or the dying flame. Luckily, it was the flame. I cared for it, growing it, re-lighting the room, and was provided with the idea I needed, as painful as it would be.

There was one way out I realized, and I wouldn't like it. Unfortunately for me, there was no choice.

To avoid a fire from starting, I cut the pant leg, rolling it back, exposing my skin. This would hurt, but I preferred a burnt leg over a slow death of carbon poisoning. I adjusted my leg as best as I could, lit the small flame in my left hand, and moved it towards the metal.

I was new to fire bending. The strength of my fire at this point was hardly that of even an amateur, but that only meant I would be here longer. Unfortunately, time **was** of the essence, so I got started that second.

There were no results for the first 5 minutes. Then, the metal took a warm orange color. After 10 minutes, it was red, droplets of hot steel dripping onto my skin. I'd have to stop my burning process to wipe them off every number of seconds to avoid even worse results. Over the next 15 minutes, the frequency of these drops increased, and the pain was becoming excruciating until I believed it ready to warp. I grabbed the steam pipe, shoving it into the orange steel, piercing through it, moving the steel plate to the side, followed by a wave of warm iron falling over my leg, practically charring the section of skin and finally, freed my left leg, despite the cost.

I looked at the leg, and, well, it wasn't particularly good. I had managed to avoid most of the melted steel, but that which had fallen onto to me was leaving its mark. It would, however, have been worse. Interesting thing about when molten steel meets skin is that it takes time for the heat to transfer, giving me time to remove the droplets. All the same, in vast quantities such as I had just experienced, they take their toll. Could still feel the leg though which was of some consolation, but I had to get moving.

Now came the real issue. Getting out of here. I moved to the only potential exit, the gunner's port, but, of course, it was collapsed. There was no leaving through there. That left not natural exit. I couldn't see out of the front viewport where Gan's corpse was so there was no indication of what was the easiest way out. There was one piece of consolation, however. We were the last tank to go down. We were at the top. If there was anyone who could free themselves from this mountain of bodies, tanks, and rocks, it was me.

And I knew how to get out. The tank's fuel lines were intact. Th steam lines were broken, but the pipes that fed gasoline to the engine were still intact. The engine was at the front of the tank. If I could change the pressure in the valves, I could feed more gas into the engine, overloading it, and upon a trigger of the engine, If I could even start the tank, the front would explode. Assuming it didn't kill me, It might pave a way for me to escape.

So I did just that. I changed the pressure vials and was overjoyed at the sound of the gas moving, unmolested by breaches in the pipe-works. After a minute or two of waiting, I knew it was time. I just needed to protect myself. I'd seen it done before, but had never attempted it. The moment I ignited the gas, the engine would explode in an explosion that, if I was right in assuming it would blow the rocks out of the way, would definitely kill me.

I would have to stop the explosion in its tracks. I turned off the pressure to the. Valves, trusting enough had gone to the engines, waited a second or two, and opened the pipe, avoiding the small amount of gasoline that leaked out. Then I focused. I created the spark of fire in my left hand, raised it to the pipes, and sent it through. Then I focused. Focused on the world around me. Then I felt it. The ignition as the spark met the gasoline. I felt the heat around me grow and prepared myself for the explosion. I extended my arm, focusing, concentrating, and felt the ignition and held. The force grew, the fire grew, the explosion grew. The world around me shook, but I stood my ground. The explosion grew, parts of the tanks collapsed, rocks broke apart, but I held. The front of the tank exploded in fire as the metal of the tank's bow ripped apart in the sheer impact of the explosion, but I focused, and held it back, and then, realizing it wasn't enough, redirected it. I turned the force of the blast around, and sent it towards the rocks that had me buried all this way underground and the earth shook, and the explosion, finding its outlet, escaped, and died, and I fell to the ground, exhausted.

When I woke up in what I could tell was 5 minutes or 5 hours, I saw the open sky ahead of me. I saw the stars, the black sky, and the moon, looking down on me, telling me I was alive. And so I was.

I stood up, and crawled forwards, past the tank, past Gan's mangled body, ordering myself to ignore it, ignore him, and crawled past the charred rock I had created, and exited into the open world, against all odds, still alive. I stood up on that mountain of dead men and machinery and made my way down the mountain, the wall of Ba Sing Se right behind me.

Soon enough, I was at the bottom. I turned around, and saw what lay behind me. A mountain of rocks, tanks, and bodies. I ignored the thought of just how many more soldiers like me were buried underneath, begging for a quick death or just trying to get out to make it back home. Then I looked upwards, and saw the wall of Ba Sing Se, the killer of all these people, the only thing protecting the killers inside that city. The only thing between me and them. And I was going to tear that wall down.

I made my way back to the camp of the 5th Corps. Or at least, what was left of it. I walked in the night, limping the 2 kilometers between the wall and the camp. The evidence of the battle that had apparently ensued surfaced slowly but surely. First, there were craters, all burnt out, accompanied by Earth Kingdom forces. There were the bodies of soldiers, mangled and limbless on the ground, dried blood painting the ground. I moved on, passing more bodies and craters, some still burning. I began to think the battle of the camp had been won. At least, that's what I was thinking as I passed the Earth Kingdom's worm-like tanks, overturned, split apart, charred, and still burning, but such wasn't the case. I passed the perimeter of the camp, over the trenches, and saw the devastation of. The 5th Corps. The trenches had become mass graves of Fire Nation soldiers, stacked in piles atop each other, nearly filling the trenches to the brim.

Fires still lit throughout the camp, whether be it soldiers or the tents. All the same, it was all gone. The entire 5th Corps. Then the rain began, only adding insult to injury. Damn, how I hated the rain. The tents of the 22nd and the 15th were looted and burnt to the ground. The weapons were stolen, the armor too. The doctor's tent was looted and he lay dead on the ground, slumped against the wall of the tent, bleeding from a spear in his stomach. I went to the command tent next, past the battlements and three mounds of bodies and saw the corpses of two of the three men who had seemed so invincible before, commanding our fates with their voices alone, slumped on the ground, in a line of two, all dead, executed.

I didn't feel joy or anger. I felt empty. This was the second time it had happened now. It just kept happening. The Hornets. Now the 5th. Everything around me was dead. The soldiers, the engineers, the doctors, the cooks, the mounts. The Earth Kingdom killed everyone and everything, burning what the couldn't take. How did they claim this was a war of morality when this was how they fought?

I thought that for hours as I headed to the South and West, because I had made my decision. Gan and Gi Gu had considered it, but I wouldn't. I wasn't a deserter. If I deserted, how would. Ever get a chance to take this city down? So when I saw the lights in the distance followed by the Fire Nation banner, I knew that not only would I live, but I would get my chance. I would get my chance to burn this city to the ground.

 **Iroh**

Lu Ten was taking it hard. He was so confident when the battle began. He thought he had it all planned out. He thought it would work perfectly. **I** thought it would work. Then it didn't.

We were half way up the walls when the reinforcements came. We sprung the trap in the walls easily enough, facing minimal casualties and it looked like we might scale the walls, but then came the reinforcements. The fortified the top of the wall, eliminated a line of tanks, and Lu Ten made the toughest of calls, seeing there was nothing he could do. He ordered a retreat.

Now, we were together, going over plans for the next attack, but progress had stagnated. Nothing was being done. He couldn't pay attention. Knew the defeat was haunting him, but he had to move past it. Full command of the army had been returned to me and Lu Ten saw this as failure on his part. Indeed, the objective hadn't been met. We didn't take the wall, and Ba Sing Se was no closer to falling, but he ate the right choice. From where I was watching, I saw thee reinforcements come and prayed he would make the right call and pull back. He did. There was no other choice. Had he attempted to push through, he might have, put thousands would have been lost. Hardly over a hundred losses in contrast was a far better alternative.

But, on the other hand, morale was low. Lower than it had ever been. The assault we had been preparing for over a year now had failed. We were undermanned now and a new plan would take a while to put together until any new information came to light. Now, I would have no choice but to command my host with the 5th Corps. I had sent a small party to their camp to talk with Zahckrael. Hopefully, he hadn't suffered too many losses and would be able to prove useful.

Now, though, I had to deal with my son, who was staring blankly at the map in front of him.

"Lu Ten" I said, placing a hand on his shoulder that he promptly shrugged off. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have expected the reinforcements to come. You made the right call to retreat."

"I looked like a coward. A plan over a year in the making and I surrender it the moment an unexpected threat was met. I should have pushed through."

"Thousands would have died."

"And now thousands more will die in the next attack. That was our chance, and I ruined it."

"You ruined nothing. You gave those men a chance to live and put their skills to use in a more worthwhile effort. They would have died for nothing in that attack."

"They put everything on the line there! Have you talked to them? I haven't, but I hear what they say, I saw the looks they gave me. They blame me!"

"They have no reason to blame you."

"They do. Their friends died in a worthless assault and I did nothing to avenge the fallen."

"You'll get your chance, my son. But that wasn't yesterday. More would have needlessly died if you stayed."

His shoulders dropped and his posture faltered. "Maybe. But any attack in the future will be all the more difficult now that they've lost faith in me."

"They haven't lost faith in you. They just need a victory. Something to remind them that we'll win."

"Like what."

"I don't know, Lu Ten. We'll find something."

"I don't think I can."

"You have to. I need my best commanders with me if we are to take this city and end this all too painful war."

In that moment, a soldier I recognized by Zeadrik, distinguished by his armor markings rushed into the tent, let in by the guards outside. He was with the party that had gone to the 5th Corps' camp. _How was he already back?_

"General Iroh, sir. We've come back from the camp of the 5th Corps."

"What is it, Corporal?" I responded.

"They've been wiped out."

 _Wiped out?_ This time, Lu Ten interjected. "What do you mean wiped out, Zeadrik?"

"Their camp's been destroyed. The 22nd and 15th are completely decimated. The camp's been looted and burnt to the ground. They're gone, sirs."

"Did you find any survivors?"

"Only one, sir. Sergeant Luke."

 _Luke? The supposed Air Nomad? No. It wasn't him. It couldn't be him. There were coincidences and then there was insanity._ "Are you sure, it's him?"

"Yes sir. He's in the med bay. He's beat up pretty bad."

"I'll question him immediately."

Lu Ten stopped me before I headed out. "Father. He's just survived hell out there. Let him rest while we work on the plan for the next assault. Then we'll question him on the morrow.

Yes. We would. I didn't like coincidences like this. A Fire Nation unit of over 5,000 me gets wiped out and all that remained is a potential traitor and public enemy to the Fire Nation. Oh yes. He was going to be questioned. And if he was responsible for the death that occurred here, there would be hell to pay.

 **Luke**

The sun was outside. So that meant, it was the next morning. I'd been here a day. I have no memory of the first day. I only remember entering the camp, loud with the activity of soldiers in the early morning and being brought into a white tent marked by a red cross and being placed on a medical bed. I saw a face look down on me and that was it of that day.

Now, I was awake. At least I believed I was. My left leg was being suspended. From the roof. My right was in a cast. My right arm was off to the side, also in a cast. All I had of use to me was my left arm and there wasn't particularly much to do with it. So I thought. I thought of how. Would take the wall down, because by the power of whatever spirits there were, I would tear down that damn wall.

I heard the tent open and in came the host of that face that had the honor of being the last thing I saw yesterday. He was a light skinned man, bearing aging and scars providing evidence of a long career on the battlefield. However, I put him no older than 30. He was young, but there were years of horror and experience behind those eyes.

"Good." He said. "You're awake."

"So I am."

"How do you feel?"

"Like I broke 3 limbs and was forced to walk over 20 kilometers before you found me."

"Adrenaline is a beautiful thing, is it not?"

"It is until it's gone."

To that, he chuckled as he fiddled with equipment next to my bed in a manner I was unable to comprehend. _How may times in the last year have I been in Medical Tents just like this one? Far too many times, that was for sure._ "Very true." He replied. "Can you raise your left arm and give it to my for a second? Thanks."

"I noticed that the wall isn't down here either. The attack here failed too, huh?"

"Oh yeah." He said, distracted by the obviously more important medical matters at hand.

"You seem in one piece though. At least compared to the 5th."

"Compared to the 5th, you could say we're in paradise."

"So you saw what happened?"

"The ones who brought you in did. Thy heard your account then sent some back to check it out. You're lucky kid. 1 person in 5,000 survived and it was you."

"I don't feel very lucky. That wall's still up and I'm down here."

"Yeah. You'll find many men here with the same attitude. They came here to tear down an indestructible object and they've invested far too much time to just give up and go home. They're eager to win this."

"Good. So am I."

"Hey. So I've got to know. I had some buddies in that last attack who didn't. Make it back. Unlucky bastards were in the Van during our assault. Why all the extra reinforcements? What happened with the 5th? I thought you were supposed to draw them off of us? Were they ready for you too? Did we time our attack wrong?"

"No. Iroh played his troops exactly like he was supposed to. It was my commanders that fucked up. One in particular. Zahckrael. He thought he saw an opening and sent his men. He launched the 15th straight into a trap. Half of us were dead within 15 minutes of scaling the wall and it was all dominoes from there."

"Yeah. We assumed as much. When we heard about the 5th, all the men started coming up with theories about how Zahckrael, in his Zahckrael ways, botched the whole mission in some mad pursuit for glory."

"They'd be right."

"And from what our scouts brought back, it seems the men they had deployed to that portion of the wall, went to where we were by means of train and repelled our attack. Once we were thoroughly repelled, they attacked the 5th Corps' camp, and, only facing one ill-trained division, the 22nd, they wiped them out."

"There was a fight, but yeah. From what I saw, it was an all-out massacre."

"Sorry, kid. I imagine you had some friends there."

"Yeah. I did."

"Look. I hate to burden you even more, but the men here completely blame the 5th as the reason they're not plowing through Earth Kingdom lines right now."

"Rightly so. Too bad there's no more 5th for them to take their anger out on."

"Right. Nobody but you."

I looked at him, and he looked at me and I knew he could see my face that just screamed "You're fucking kidding me, right?" Now that I think about it, I probably said it aloud too.

"I wish I was. They'll see you and see the 5th Corps."

"So that's me now and my future in this army? I'm the 5th Corps and the memory of their long line of fuck ups?"

"Until you prove yourself otherwise, yeah."

"Fucking hell. I already dealt with this 'proving myself bullshit' back in the academy and the 5th. I got to do it all over again?"

"Wherever you go, you'll always have to prove yourself worthy to be there. Second and First hand accounts of your actions will only go so far. They have to see it for themselves."

"Gonna be thought to do while in here. Is there another assault being planned."

"Speaking of, there's 2 people who want to see you."

With that, he left, and the 2 highest ranking commanders left in my life approached me. When I failed to salute with my right arm, shaking the table next to me and inflicting some unpleasant pain, I saluted with my left, seeming to amuse Lu Ten, but sparking no reaction from the currently stone-faced General.

Iroh, of course, was the first to speak. "We want to hear the details of what happened. We want to hear of the preparation of the assault, of its execution, and why it failed."

"I just told the medic."

"Then tell us too." Said Lu Ten. "But leave nothing out."

"Lot to talk about then. Goes back a long ways too. Where should I start?"

Iroh spoke now. "From when he received his orders."

"Well. I wasn't there when he received the orders from you, but he didn't tell us of the orders until the day before the assault. We had already been pounding their walls with artillery, but our orders for the actual assault were only relayed to us the day prior."

"Sloppy." Commented Lu Ten. "Why would he keep this information from you until the day before? Did he believe the men not needing of the information, but only the commanders?"

"He didn't tell the commanders either. My own, Zand, learned when we did. He seemed convinced that it was because he didn't want him arguing with the orders and the battle plans."

Iroh now. "Those were my orders and my plans. What would Zand have to argue to Zahckrael for?"

"At that point, sir, they weren't your orders. The Lieutenant General let his personal anger get in the way and moved all insubordinate tank crews to the vanguard of the attack, including mine own. He didn't want Zand changing anything, I guess."

Lu Ten spoke now. "So he purposely changed the arrangement of troops to deal with personal problems? That hardly explains why the entire assault failed. What more happened?"

"Zahckrael also sent us out about 30 minutes before your orders had told us to."

"What?" Asked Iroh.

"He sent us out early. He believed he saw an opening and thought he would take the wall right away and claim the success of the battle for himself, breaching the wall, and pacing the way for his 22nd infantry to storm the city. At least, that's what I take from his actions."

"Can anybody attest to this?" Asked Lu Ten.

"Probably the Earth Kingdom General manning the wall. Anybody else, on our side at least, well, probably not."

Iroh now, moved up, past his son, and said to me "Are you telling me the truth now, Luke of the Fire Nation?"

 _Odd choice of words. All the same._ "Yes. I am."

"Then rest." And with that, he turned to leave, but I had a question of my own.

"Sir. If you don't mind my asking, how long until I'm back out there?"

Iroh replied first. "You're arm's broken and you're worst leg will take a month to heal. You're going home, son."

"No sir. Sorry sir, but I can't. I only need one arm to bend, even an offhand. Put me back in a gunner's seat and I'll fight. I don't even need my legs for that. My driver went almost a month driving with a broken leg."

At that, Lu Ten shook his head, saying "We're not Zahckrael kid. You're too injured to fight. And besides, why in the hell wouldn't you want to leave here and go home. It's hell out here."

"Because sirs, if I go home now, wherever the hell that is, how am I going to be able to burn this city to the ground?"


	34. Chapter 32: The Next Stage

**Luke**

I didn't even need to look up or hear him talk to know who it was that walked into that tent at around midday of my 13th sun in confinement of said shelter, but all the same, he spoke, confirming my suspicions. It had, after all, only been a matter of time.

"1 soldier out of 5,000. That's what they told me. Never would have imagined that it would have been you."

"Hey, Danev. I appreciate the confidence you put in me."

"Can you blame me? Would you put money on my name with the same odds?"

"More than anyone else in that position? Yes. But out of 5,000, well, I get your point."

"So you forgive me?"

"For what? For not expecting me to survive? Don't be over dramatic. Got over things on my mind at the moment."

"I imagine. Hell. Look at you. One leg suspended and one arm in the cast. I imagine there's not much else you **can** do in that position over than think."

"Well. I don't plan on being here too much longer."

"No kidding. You just got your one-way ticket home. I too would be biding my time for the moment I could get out of this hell-hole."

"Nah. I already turned that offer down. I'm biding my time until. Can get back out there and finish what we started."

"Wait. What? The siege. Are you insane? After what happened to the 5th?"

"Especially after what happened to the fifth."

"So it's, what? Revenge?"

"Assurance. Satisfaction. Revenge. Peace of mind. A lot of those things. I can't leave midway through this."

"Why not? Why do you care so damn much about this siege?"

"Because I want this war to end. If that means another few months of intense death and killing in exchange for indefinite peace afterwards, it would be worth it. Don't you feel the same?"

"I don't care about this fucking war. I care about survival and the survival of the people next to me. My squad."

"Right. You got promoted, but if you did, wouldn't you want this over as quickly as possible, so as to not see **your** men ever put in harm's way again?"

"I couldn't care less if we **won** or **lost** this war, so long as I, And those close to me live. I'm no patriot. We grew up in the slums with a Nation watching over us that didn't give two shits about our lives. You were there. You suffered as much as anyone and you care about this war? About the bullshit politics and intrigue?"

"I care about preventing more massacres like that which happened just 2 weeks ago."

With that, Danev calmed down as he seemed to recall that I wasn't the only one of the Citadel kids in that battle. There were some he knew there as well, and I could tell that was precisely where his mind wandered following my statement. "So it really was that much a slaughter."

"You say you saw the numbers. 4,999 dead. Why are you so surprised now?"

He ignored my question, asking next: "So what happened."

"This is about the hundredth time I answered that same question. Zahckrael fucked up, deployed us too early, killed his entire Corps in the process."

"And the 15th? The other Citadel kids?"

"Dead. Earth Kingdom sprung a trap, caught about a quarter of the 15th below me. The rest were picked off one by one by Earth Benders."

"And your crew?"

"Gi Gu was impaled through the neck and Gan either was crushed or bled out. I don't know."

"The rest of the Citadel kids?"

"Probably buried underneath thousands of tons of stone and debris. Maybe still alive at this moment, suffering for oxygen and-"

"I get it. You're all that's left."

"For the second damn time in the last year. Guess the role of Sole Survivor just fits me."

"So if you went through that shit, why would you be so eager to go back into it? You think it'll go any better?"

"I already told you why, and besides, I can't exactly get any worse from what happened the last time around."

"Well. Lucky you then might just get your wish. I've been summoned to a war meeting for the Crimson Battalion. After our losses in the last attack, as minimal as they were, we've had to regroup the Host. The Crimson Battalion is now more or less the battle group leading the Siege."

"But they're just a Battalion."

"Yeah. It's pretty much the Crimson Army now. Lu Ten's been promoted to Lieutenant General, but Iroh's still commanding the Siege."

"Look's like family's getting priority in the chain of Command then."

"Not. Not really. It was put to a vote actually among the battalion commanders."

"What happened to the Lieutenant General who was already in charge?"

"Shit. You didn't hear?"

"Clearly not. What happened?"

"Deserted. It's been fucking with morale. He was only found missing after you already got here."

"Seriously? Shit."

"Yeah."

"So what now?"

"For me? Well. I have to get to this meeting. You? Just try to get better. If you really insist on fighting, try walking again. I know you can fight left handed, but you'll need more practice. Just try getting out of here in the next w. Yeah?"

"Yep. I'm tired of this damn tent anyway."

"I know you are, Luke." He turned to leave before stopping in his steps, once more looking behind himself at me, and saying "Glad you're alive Luke. And I'm sorry. For what happened to your crew"

And with that, he left without waiting for a reply. I wasn't sure if I would have replied. Maybe I'd have said a small 'tank you', but that was past now, and he was right.

I reached over my body with my left hand and grabbed the scalpel that had been left there by the medic who was currently off somewhere else. I bent upwards, reaching for my suspended leg, and made the cut. I was done waiting in here.

 **Danev**

He was, well, about how I had expected him to be. Who could blame him? He just saw his entire Corps get cut down in front of him. I mean, I expected worse from him, but still, the lack of energy and humor in him was hard to see especially compared to when I last saw him. This war needed to end. I could see, now more than ever, just what it was doing to Luke.

Hell. It started even before we got involved in this damned war. In Citadel, when I recruited him to the Hornets, that was the real beginning. Before then, he was, well, himself. It was the right choice though. Wasn't it? It was Hornets or death.

 _Was death really the worse option, though?_ If he had died there, he wouldn't be here, broken, plotting revenge because he just saw hundreds around him violently cut down.

And what when the war ends? Does he go back to Citadel? Is he conscripted into guard duty? Is he discarded? What happens to him? What happens to us? Me?

I pushed the thoughts out of my head as I entered the war tent. I wasn't the last which was always good, but I was damn near, pushing it. Lu Ten was the firs to greet me as always, clasping my hand and shaking it in a ritual of both mutual respect and friendship. Ever since I was promoted to Staff Sergeant, our meetings would become more frequent and we thought a lot alike. Sure, I was far younger, but we had a lot in common.

Despite being my superior by a long ways, he was rather open to the camaraderie of his men. No doubt a facet of his life that got him to the role of Lieutenant General. Second in Command now, damn. Quite the promotion.

Lu Ten returned to his father's side who acknowledged my presence with a firm nod. He's been more and more on edge since the first failed attack. He was praying for victory. Anticipating it. He had the perfect plan, but it was the lack of reliability of his men that got to him.

While I was in this tent, however, I noticed the battalion commanders, but saw no other staff sergeants. I was the lowest ranked person in that room. And the looks I received confirmed the weight that held. They were by no means satisfied with my presence. _Did they see it as an insult? A jest?_

I had my breath held, waiting for whatever they might say until the last commander entered the tent, and the discipline of the commanders pulled through, preventing them from speaking out in Iroh's presence. There was a very clear distinction between the loyalty and discipline displayed in the Crimson Army as opposed to the 5th. I considered myself lucky. I left the 5th before it was too late and I was among those 4,999 corpses.

And nobody from my old platoon had fallen yet. We faced combat on multiple occasions, but suffered no deaths or severe injuries. My squad too. They were young and inexperienced, but I was the enforcer of a violent gang in the most dangerous city in the Earth Kingdom, so I had experience beating men into shape.

"Let us begin" spoke Iroh, opening the map upon the closing of the tent flaps, now surrounded by two masked Firebender elites.

The map opened and I noticed the new red 'X' marking the loss of the 5th, as though it weren't obvious enough, but there were other markings too, the positions of other Fire Nation armies and fleets. 'So we were going to ask for reinforcements?' I asked myself in my head, not braving to speak out of turn.

"As you all know, our strength has been cut in half with the fall of the 5th" Iroh said, motioning to the red 'X'. "The 5th was previously credited with cutting off traded with the North Sea. We cut off the land traded, they cut off the sea trade. Now, my scout tell me Water Tribe Ships are once again entering the city, providing the city with fresh food and supplies. A year of attrition down the drain. I seek to send an envoy to Admiral Chan and request his assistance with the Siege. That envoy will be my son, somebody high enough up the chain of command. My heir and the Lieutenant General of the Crimson Army should be enough. Now is the issue of the next assault, assuming we can rely on Admiral Chan of course. In order of order, are there any suggestions for how to assault this city."

I held my breath, but the Lieutenant Colonel of the 29th Division wasn't smart enough. He spoke, out of line. "We must launch a full scale assault immediately while they are recovering."

Iroh then, stood, and looked to him and him only, excluding all of us from what transpired next. "Not only is your suggestion idiotic and pointless, but you speak out of line. Lu Ten is your Commanding Officer. Perhaps you forgot your place in the chain of command, Lieutenant Colonel. If you cannot keep up with the workings of this army and the one plan you've come up with in the last 2 weeks is to smash our heads against the wall and hope it falls, then I see no reason wasting this valuable brainstorming time of yours with actual military strategy. Leave."

The rest of us sat speechless as the Commander of the 29th did, but there was no arguing from him. He was an idiot, but he was no Commander of the 5th. He abandoned his argument, stood, bowed, and left. That was the last I saw of him that day. And rightly so.

"Lu Ten." Iroh spoke, sitting, once again having secured order in his court. "Your plan?"

At this point, I felt myself wondering if these last 2 weeks were given to me to come up with a plan. I began to feel a nervous sensation, lacking any form of plan, using this time to try and think of one, but that wasn't my strong suit: strategy. That was more Luke's forte.

Nonetheless, when Lu Ten spoke, I gave him my attention, mentally and spiritually readying myself for a worst case scenario. "It's obvious we lack the manpower for a full frontal assault. And the siege is now contained to one front, meaning we cannot launch a multi-pronged assault again as we did two weeks ago. Thus, I propose an infiltration of sorts. At least the likes of which we can achieve with our current numbers."

"Infiltration?!" Spoke out the commander of the 14th. "You plan to waste men on covert operations? How would this even be done?"

Iroh rose, speaking "Speak only when-"

Lu Ten, however, raised a hand to his father, saying "It's okay, father." Now, turning back to the commander, with Iroh seating himself once again, Lu Ten spoke, saying "Good question. I don't mean to secure the city with infiltrators. They have far too many men and the Dai Li in the inner city wouldn't tolerate any sort of actions along those lines. What I mean to do is create an opening in the walls for our force to enter."

"How do you mean to do this?" Asked the 17th's commander. "The wall can only be opened by Earth Benders and well, we have none."

"Correct. Being the Fire nation, we're rather low on Earth benders at the moment, but as you may have noticed if you believe the reports from the scouts that saw the ruins of the 5th Corps, our artillery was stolen. And we know from reports that new weaponry has been seen atop the walls. I beg to suggest that may be our artillery they have there, meaning it's highly explosive if those are our cannons. If we manage to get a team inside those walls to sabotage their artillery, a combined effort our their ruined artillery, our own functioning artillery, and the efforts of our firebenders, we should be just able to blow a hole in those walls. After which, of course, we send our troops in and take the outer ring."

The commander of the 17th spoke again, asking "Who would you mean to send on a mission along these lines? We have no trained Special Forces here. The nearest Special Forces team is operating outside of Gaoling, and we hear they've recently faced some losses and a missing operative."

"No. I suggest using our newest squad in the 31st platoon, Squad Echo, commanded by Staff Sergeant Danev here."

The words, at this point, had just been words, never holding any real significance until I saw everybody looking at me, and I wondered what the hell had just been said. Luckily, I didn't need to be the one to react first. The commander of the 14th took that honor.

"Him!? Are you being serous, child. He's a known criminal. He's spent his life harassing the Fire Nation, stealing from camps and from the Citadel's military district."

"You just answered your own question, commander. He's the perfect one for this job. He's been doing it his whole life."

"But just how do you expect to infiltrate the city?" Asked the 14th's commander again."

And in the words of that meeting that I came to dread most, finally regretting the trust Lu Ten had put in me, he said "Well. That's up for our expert to determine."

I didn't really hear much after that. I just remembered talk, the meeting ending, and being alone in that tent with Iroh as he cleared his throat and said "You can leave now, Staff Sergeant."

 **Long Feng**

The first assault had been a resounding success. _For us, that is_ I thought, smiling to myself. Everything had gone as I intended. The Fire Nation had been repelled. Supplies was flowing back through the city, the citizenry was restful once again, and the last of the leaks from the failed defense of the listening post had been plugged. No news of it would ever reach the people. All that must be on their mind is complete and absolute victory. Nothing less.

And now, I had my meeting with my dear friend, the Earth King. He was not currently holding court, this was a private meeting. Well. Private in his eyes. Unfortunately, the walls here are made of Earth, and the Earth here speaks. It whispers. All that matters is who controls those whispers. And now, that was me. So yes, this was a private meeting. No news of this would reach the ears of the most curious mouse unless I willed it to.

I bowed before the King after I was summoned and heard those impressive steel ornamented doors close behind me.

"You summoned me, your grace? I asked, with the feigned respect I had been forced to deliver for 17 years now, since I was a young man in my prime with the only misfortune of lacking combat training. In those early years, I despised my position, even when promoted to grand Secretariat. I had desired a military position until I became acquainted with the Dai Li and assumed control and came to realize that the softest whisper could topple the hardest army. So here I kneeled, in front of a man I despised who was all that stood between me and absolute control over this Kingdom.

"I did. I would like to congratulate you on your assistance and that of the Dai Li towards the defenders of the city. You've been an instrumental weapon in this war and I would like to know if there was anything I could do to reward you for your service."

'Your Throne' was the answer I would have spoken had I been a foolhardy Idiot. This wasn't the first time I'd been offered such rewards, but not even he could give me what I wanted. His 'honor' would forbid it.

"The pleasure of serving you is enough reward for me, your grace."

"I am glad to hear you are so devoted to the protection of your Kingdom. It is a rare thing to find such loyalty now a days. I am pleased that I can find it in you, my closest advisor and Grand Secretariat. It is an honor to have your undying loyalty."

"The honor is all mine, your grace."

"Please. You may go. I will not take any more of your time."

I bowed, and as I turned to leave, he said one last thing to me. "Oh. And Long Feng. I have approved your request to have more Dai Li on hand. However, rather than 100, I grant you tenfold that number.

I was forced to contain my shock and my proceeding smile before I turned to face him and bowed once more, concealing my still obvious smile as I said "I accept this gift with humility, your grace. Thank you."

Still bowed to avoid contact, I turned and left through those doors until they closed behind me, and I stood. _The fool._ Was the first thought to come to mind. Day by day, he helped me to seal his own fate and that of this Kingdom, but now, there was more to deal with. That being a still very much alive hostile force outside these walls.

I walked through the doors to the wing of the Dai Li and entered, stopping in front of my secretary, at her small desk, smiling at me saying "Good evening, sir. How was your meeting?"

"Excellent. Thank you, Joo Dee." I replied, leaning on her desk in my usual fashion. "Are there any messages for me?"

"None, sir. All quiet tonight."

There was a pause until we both chuckled at that ridiculous notion. One aspect of the Dai Li was that, to us, there was no such thing as a quiet night.

"And you, Joo Dee? How are you?"

"The healers say it'll be a difficult pregnancy, but I've made the appropriate offerings to the spirits, so my husband and I have hope."

"That's good to hear. You may leave now if you wish to. I will be retiring for the night, it's been a long day."

"Thank you, but I'll stay here until the end of my shift. It's the least I can do."

"Very loyal of you. A good night to you, Joo Dee."

"And to you too, sir."

I then walked past her and through the door that led to the corridor that eventually took me to my 'public' office, and by that, I mean the one not situated in non-existent facility based under an insignificant lake in the outer ring.

I was fond of Joo Dee. She had been a loyal servant of mine for a near decades now, helping me in nearly every way imaginable. She was loyal too. It was 5 years until I deigned too bring her into my sphere of influence after I had deemed her trustworthy enough. And I would be lying if I said my personal opinion of her didn't play a role in that decision all those years ago, before she had been married. She was what many would refer as "cute", with an innocent face, curly black hair, and a wonderful body figure that made me surprised she had been married so late at the age of 24. Her husband was a lucky man, but their marriage had no effect on my opinion of her or her use to me. I had more important concerns than the silly preoccupation of romance.

I sat at my desk and saw it was clear save one document. No night was ever truly silent. I opened it and saw the report, reading through it quickly, and knowing this siege was nowhere near over.

My informant had come through and his information was more vital than any army was. The Dragon's Host was reorganizing with Lu Ten in command of the new Crimson Army, but Iroh still commanding the siege. They were preparing an attack on the city, but of details unknown to me.

A pitiful document, but all the same, better than nothing. I had 1,000 official new positions available. I was already thousands over what my technical limit was, but these were now men I could openly put in my service which was always more useful than those forced to stay in the shadows at all times.

In a way, I pitied Kuei. He wanted to believe so badly I served his interests, but day by day, he buried himself a deeper grave. This siege would be over soon, and when it was, I would make sure this city knew who it was that saved them. I already had men spreading news of my role in the battle through mediums of information. Contrary to the tactics of the Fire Nation, I would win this city, but I would win it from the inside. Because one thing was true of this city. It could never be taken from the outside, but it was always most vulnerable at its core, at the heart of this city and the Earth Kingdom. And it was from there than I would take this city and this Kingdom, all for myself. And there would be nobody to blame but those who stood by ignorantly as I made my moves, day by day.

This city, tho Kingdom, would be mine.


	35. Chapter 33: Recovery and Reorganization

**Luke**

The first thing I noticed of course, when leaving that damned tent, was undoubtedly, the grand extent of the camp around me. There was no doubt that this host had been here damn near year longer. More experienced, better fortified, and far more organized. It put ours to shame in a matter of seconds. Or rather, it put the 5th to shame, in a matter of minutes. It was no wonder the 5th fell and Crimson didn't. Just a quick walk, or, more accurately, a slow shuffle around that camp was enough to point out that simple fact.

Of course, that shuffle didn't last long. Soon enough, the strength in my left arm gave out, the crutch fell, and I collapsed. I still had no feeling in my right arm. My left leg was a concentrated mass of pain and suffering and my right was barely able to support a portion of my weight. Luckily enough for me though, the camp's attention seemed to be focused elsewhere. I had no intention to return to that medical tent. It wasn't for a lack of trust in their abilities, but a mere sense of impatience. I had no time to go back in there. I had to make this recovery on my own, as futile as that effort seemed. I collapsed not 10 feet in front of the tent.

Then, at that point, it was a cycle of trial and error. By the 6th attempt, I hadn't miraculously healed a leg or unbroken my arm, no, but I did find a better way to support my weight on that crutch. And by my 7th fall, I was at least 50 feet away from that tent, no air left in my lungs, every muscle in my body aching, my mind telling me just to go back to that damned tent.

The camp activity began to return, and I crawled my way to the nearest tent I could find, leaning against it as the sky began to darken, and eventually, to add insult to injury, the rain began to fall in a manner hell bent on making me as damned miserable as possible.

I moved my helpless carcass in the "alley" of sorts between two tents, leaning back on the sturdier one, devoid of protection, still being in my underclothes, dirty, blood and piss-stained, smelling like shit, literally, alone in that camp.

It had been months since I last cried. I felt my eyes begin to water, unaware of whether it was me or the surrounding climate and told myself that nobody would notice. I was hidden, and I could just tell them it was the rain. Then, however, I told myself that I would know. That I can't give in to those kinds of emotions. Those of pity, worthlessness, and sadness, but to replace them with something else. Something productive. Useful. I remembered what Jeong Jeong had told me about fire. I abandoned those feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness and let them fade away. Something new burned in me. Something brought about by my memories. Memories of all the death around me and the source of it all.

I remembered Gan, and Gi Gu. I remembered myself and what had been done to me and those I cared about. I remembered who had done it and allowed those new emotions to take over. Anger. Hate. Words with such negative connotation, but these emotions are not inherently negative, not with the potential they carry: dedication, resilience, stubbornness.

Ignoring the pain that shot through my arms, legs, spine, and torso, I grabbed that crutch, and rose onto my feet. The world was a blur in front of me. The rain was coming down hard now, but it wouldn't stop me. I took one step after the other and moved. I knew where I was going. I needed that sense of worth back beyond all else. I needed a sense of purpose. I was no use as an infirm and immobile carcass in that tent. Not when I could still be a soldier. A killing machine when put on the field.

So I turned towards that command tent, ignoring the masses of soldiers that gathered around me, and kept on walking. I heard their murmurs behind their closed helmets marking more firebenders and kept walking. Going uphill, I ignored the pain shooting through my legs and merely put on in front of the other and leaned forward. I heard the masses gathering behind me as I walked, unsure if they were readying themselves to catch me if I fell or laugh in my face if I did. I had no intention to meet that prerequisite though. I reached the top of the hill, where the man who held my fate in his hands was situated and threw my crutch away. The tent was guarded by two crimson clad royal guards, but they, for some reason, parted ways for me. Was I expected? Was I really that hideous to look upon? I didn't take the time to think about it. I fell against the tent, using it to support me, and, with all my strength, opened the flap that led to the tent, and stumbled inside.

I saw two figured with unrecognizable faces thanks to the blur in my eyes, but all the same, recognizable figures, and saw them as the father and son duo responsible for the carrying out of this war and could hear the jumble of their voices, but above all, heard the questioning sound in their voice as they turned my name into an audible ejaculation of surprise and concern.

I had been working on that same speech as I lay in that tent, about how I would plead for reassignment, begging them not to have me transferred, but I was tired of begging. I was here to demand. And so I did.

I stood as straight as I could, faced the shrouds at the back of the tent, and as loud as I could possibly speak, I said the only possible cooperation of words that I could form in my head to relay my desire and demand from them. "I'm tired of hiding. I'm going back out there."

And then, having done all I intended to do in that span of consciousness, I felt at peace, and let my world go black as I collapsed to the ground, finally satisfied with having done something for myself, and for having, after so long, taken my life into my own hands.

 **Danev**

It was two weeks later when I again decided to visit him. I felt bad enough for being the one to make the suggestion that damn near got him killed.

His recovery had been quick. Well, quick compared to that of any normal person I had seen before. Whenever I'd talk to the doctor's, they said they'd never seen anything before like it and that he had a willpower like none others. That I had no doubt about.

He had been, "released", yesterday. And by released, I mean he escaped again but was finally in good enough condition to avoid capture for a day and had shown well enough eh was fit enough to serve.

It took me a while to find him, but I had a feeling that I knew where he was. Of course, I ended up being correct. It was the exact same as in the 5th Corps. Near the edge of the camp, training. Never stopping.

So I found him near the Eastern edge of the camp, right arm still in a cast, favoring his right leg, throwing fire at practice targets armored in scorched Earth kingdom uniforms.

Somebody who didn't know him, if forced to approach Luke, might have done so as if approaching a wild animal mid-meal, but I knew Luke. I knew his mind well enough to know he wasn't keen on having a deficiency of knowledge regarding his surroundings. I caught his eye catching my gaze every few minutes as he turned away from his current task. His eyes held a look of grim determination, but frustration as well. I could understand why. Over half of his shots were misses. Not even near misses, but ones that would get you doubting if you still had the gift of sight in both eyes.

Still, from what I saw, that frustration never even got near to overtaking him. I watched for near half an hour as he kept at it. Adjusting posture, altering form, improving footwork, running through trial after trial of how exactly to still be the killing machine he used to be.

And as I watched him, a 12-year-old kid, practicing best how to kill people, I received yet another grim reminder of the world we lived in and saw what his future looked like in front of him. No. I wasn't seeing him becoming a mindless soldier, indiscriminately killing all those in his ways. I didn't see him living long enough to do so. From the display I saw here, the odds of him surviving seemed to be falling by the minute as he missed blast after blast.

And in a moment of frustration that I knew wouldn't overpower him just yet, I realized he wouldn't survive. Not on his own. He needed more, and better training. Because Luke, no matter what held him back, when that next attack came, he would go on that field. One way or another. And he would die there in his current state.

So I left him there for a quick minute and came back with two sparring swords. I knew little about how firebending worked but could see just from the way he carried himself, that all of his reflexes were wrong. He was favoring the wrong side, positioning his body the wrong way.

I remembered what Luke had once told me about Gan and what he had done with Gi Gu. Luke had learned about it a while afterwards, and he told me what he had learned. That to make Gi Gu the soldier he was when he died, Gan took matters into his own hands. And that was what I intended on doing now.

I clanged the swords together to give him that second of realization that this was real now. He grabbed that second and while his bodily reflexes may have betrayed him with the loss of ability in the more battle-hardened part of his body, his mind remained as sharp as ever, and he saw me coming. But when he turned his right side of his body towards me, ready to absorb the impact, I saw that he still wasn't ready.

My charge knocked him down to the ground and mid-fall, I saw that realization in his eyes just how out-of-touch he was with his new situation.

Inside, I felt concern over whether I had actually hurt him but pushed that aside. The look in Luke's eyes spoke of pain, but fortunately, only physical. There was no sense of betrayal in his eyes. He knew what this was. I dropped the sword in my left hand and tossed it to him.

This time, he raised the right hand, and grabbed the blade, though with a weak grip around the hilt.

He managed to free himself from under my foot, with only me slightly giving him leeway to move and he rose, although with a struggle I could notice in his eyes that spoke of a pain that, when examining him and his posture, saw where it originated. His left leg was seriously unfavored, but still vital in keeping his balance. So, that's where I struck.

In that time, I did nothing that a real opponent would have done. That an opponent hell bent on killing one of my last friends in the world would have done. I struck at his weakness.

He noticed and attempted to move his leg out of the way of the cut but having been paying all due attention on his good leg alone, his reaction and timing were off. The blow struck at his leg and made its hit. He fell to his left and I aimed my next cut at his neck, seeking to show him just how vulnerable he was in his current state, but to my surprise, he managed to bring his sword to meet my own in a clash of blades he absorbed with little visible difficulty, but his strength in that arm was weakening, and I pushed.

He fell backwards, but only after recovering his footing in his left leg, rising to his feet again just in time to avoid my next slash at his left arm. I limited myself in one way here. I didn't go for is right arm. I wanted that to recover in all due haste and wouldn't do anything to slow that progress. But in any regard aside from that, I didn't hold back.

I made my next cut at his left leg, but he had learned his lesson in the thick of it and had began to favor his legs equally, despite the visible pain it brought him. He moved his left leg out of the way in time and this time, made his own offensive, sending a slow and weak slash at my right hand, hoping to disarm me, in a futile attempt that I had no difficulty in parrying, making my own slash at his hand, successfully disarming him and sending his blade to the ground.

I elbow rushed him, sending him to the ground, and I atop of him, ready to make the killing blow. I brought my blade up high, ready to bring it to his neck and show him he needed to do better, but then met the unexpected and felt a force like none other push against my chest, sending me backwards onto the ground.

By the time I realized what was going on, the flames on my chest were dying out, and Luke stood above me, a ready fist aimed straight at my face, ready to kill me in one swift blow.

Well then. Maybe I had underestimated him.

 **Lu Ten**

It was a pleasant surprise to see that Fire Nation intelligence and organization had finally been on point.

As we approached the Serpent's Lake, right where we had hoped to see his force, there he was, waiting, with a force of 20 Fire Nation Battlecruisers, and 1 Empire Class Battleship, all armed with newly developed trebuchets, two per ship, anchored in proper defensive formation.

 _Finally. A competent Fire Nation commander. An all too rare sight nowadays._

I had been travelling the last 2 weeks from our host's location to the Serpent's sea where we had arranged to meet Admiral Chan's fleet. I looked to the head of my convoy of 50 men, Sergeant Zarchek and gave him the signal to light the flare.

It was near evening and visibility was still somewhat good, but in the light of this time of the day, we hadn't expected him to see us with the naked eye, or where even to look for that matter. Zarchek dismounted, pulling the flare cannister out from the side pouch of his Komodo Rhino and knelt down to light it, only after checking to make sure he was lighting the proper flare, and lit it sending a green smoke trail 100 yards up to the sky, finally exploding in a brilliant spectacle of green light, illuminating the world around us in a surreal tint hinting at off worldly interference that my father was so obsessed in, and waited.

And soon enough, after only 5 minutes of waiting, the light from the flare hadn't yet dimmed in the slightest when we saw the smaller Fire Nation patrol boat come to a stop 5 feet away from the coast, extending an automated steel ramp that stretched to the surface, providing a dry walkway for me to use, despite my lack of qualms about getting my uniform wet. I had more pressing concerns than staying nice and tidy. I had to get Chan's support, but now, thinking about it, I assumed looking presentable might go a long way in gaining his support. So I came to appreciate the effort of that patrol boat's crew, and gratefully went up that ramp, issuing one last order to my convoy to set up camp and await my return. We'd camp by the lake for tonight and on the marrow, we'd set out back for my father, with news of either our success, or our failure. It would, with any fortune, be the former.

And so, on that patrol boat demonstrative of only a fraction of Fire Nation innovation and technological advance, we sped towards the command ship, the Empire Class Battleship, signified by its gold markings placing it above the other ships in the fleet, but still below the majesty displayed by that of the royal flagship, the FNS "Royal". A cocky name if you asked me. In my opinion, the Navy was just an excuse for overinflated Fire Navy officers to show off their gifts to the world through eccentrically naming their ships with names like the FNS "Birthright", "Deliverance", &c.

Not that I had any gripes against naming ships, but in my opinion, you name ships off of experience and battle's they'd been through. So as I approached Chan's fleet, I couldn't help but feel relief when I saw the names etched on the side in white paint speaking of names of historic battles Chan himself had won and lost, marking a trait of this Chan that spoke of anything but eccentricity. At that point, I found myself with a renewed sense of hope that he would see things as we did and participate in one final battle to end this war.

We approached the Empire Class Battleship, by name of "Valu River", an infamous Fire Nation defeat that occurred 5 years past, and Chan's last defeat. From that day on, only Victory had followed for this Admiral. As we neared it, the front hatch made it's way open, revealing the inner water port big enough to fit the patrol craft and 3 others. We made our way inside and the hatch closed behind us, rising back into its standard position, forming the infamous spike at the front of every Fire Navy vessel, even the outdated models.

With the closing of the hatch, the inner port become pitch black for a good 5 seconds until the emergency red lights flickered on, marking our passage to the main superstructure of the vessel. Upon entrance into the main superstructure, the lighting improved significantly, and I was guided by two Fire Navy soldiers up the stairs for around 10 stories up to the tip of the command tower where 2 more Navy guards stood post by the door, allowing me into the main bridge.

I was greeted by both Admiral Chan and his escort of guards bowing down to me, a formality I hadn't expected, but one that gave me hope of my success in this matter. I bowed in return as it was customary to do so when addressing the Captain of a boat you were present on, especially an Admiral for that matter.

With the formalities out of the way, greetings were made, with him addressing me as Lieutenant General Lu Ten, a promotion I was unsure that he had yet heard of, but apparently, he had, and had no intention of denying it.

"Lieutenant General Lu Ten" he said, straightening his posture. "We are honored by your visit to us this fine evening."

"The honor's all mine. Very impressive fleet, Admiral. I've reviewed your record on the journey here. Very impressive, I must say."

"You flatter me. I heard about the recent battle at Ba Sing Se."

"Yes. A far less impressive event."

"Indeed. No fault of your own, of course. You made the right call with your retreat. If only Lieutenant General Zahckrael had been so wise, you may not need my help."

"So you know why I am here, then." I hadn't explicitly mentioned what the reason for my visit was.

"Yes. And as eager as I am to see the fall of Ba Sing Se and the end of this war, I am unsure if I want to put my fleet between both the Earth kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe. With the combination of their Naval capabilities, my fleet would quite literally be stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"I understand your concern, Admiral. It's no small task, but we're all making sacrifices here. We're currently preparing for a second assault, with half the manpower as our last assault."

"A bold move indeed. Some might call it foolish."

"Remember who we're talking about here, Admiral. The Dragon of the West. I don't think foolish applies in this situation."

"No. It certainly does not, which is why I am rather surprised by his willingness to go ahead with this second assault. Is he really so attached to seeing that city fall? Sorry. I am not trying to talk poorly of your father."

"No offense is taken. Understand, it's his life's work. If we leave now, it would have all been for naught, but the siege can be recovered, but this siege will fail if the city has an open line of trade with the Northern Tribe. Your fleet, however. Your presence alone would dissuade all trade. No fleet would dare approach yours. And if they did, they'd stand no chance against you. Need I show you the difference between a single Earth kingdom vessel and the smallest ship in your fleet?"

"No. I know we have the advantage, at least in terms of quality, but they have numbers. And resolve too. They'd become desperate. If they tried to break out- "

"They'd be too busy fending off the Crimson Army to worry about the Navy."

"When your assault begins, that is. What of during the Siege? What's to stop them from trying to battle our fleet?"

"Nothing. You will face battle. You'll be outnumbered, but you've faced worse odds, we all know that. Admiral. There's a chance we can end this war right now. Enough Fire Nation citizens have died. If this siege is abandoned, the killing and death will continue for years if not decades more. I know neither of us want that. Why give up the opportunity to end it now?"

He chuckled. "You're a good talker, Lu Ten. You have your father's gift. You're charismatic. And you're right. This war's taken too many lives already. My own son, just 12 years old, is at risk of being drafted, and it's true, I **have** faced far worse odds. Very well, Lieutenant General. You'll have the Eastern Fleet. We'll sail immediately.

I had to prevent myself from grinning from ear to ear. I bowed, hiding my face, and left. I forced myself to be silent on the walk down, and on that ride back to the coast, but the second the patrol boat was out of sight and I had heard my men ask me what happened about 50 times over, I let out a cheer so loud I was worried Ba Sign Se would start preparing Naval Defenses, because just like that, this Siege was given a breath of fresh air. Of hope.

 **Danev**

And so Luke helped me back up off my ass and on my feet. I had underestimated him, again, and hopefully, for the last time.

"That was good." I said, between breaths.

"Not really. You held back."

"Barely."

"Still. They won't."

"True. They won't."

"Thanks for that. Needed the reminders about footing and balance. The reactions too."

"No problem." I said, accepting the sword as he handed it back to me and I set it down on a makeshift bench near the edge of the camp, sitting on it to catch my breath. His breath though, as I noticed when he sat next to me, was completely even, as though he hadn't even broken a sweat. Made me feel really small right in that moment. "You really adapted mid-fight though."

"Thanks. Not that I'm given much of a choice."

"No. Your reactions are still off, and you're shit at swordplay with your left hand as well as aiming unless it's point blank, but you can definitely improve."

"That's what I've been doing." He said, not at all annoyed as the words may have implied, but merely 'matter-of-factly.' "We gotta do this more often." He continued. "We'll both need the practice for when the real battle comes."

"Yeah. Think you're ready for it?"

"Not at all, but I can at least prepare for it. Hope to be ready when it comes time."

"Think you'll have your arm back by then?"

"Doctors say no, but fuck 'em."

"Yeah. Fuck 'em."

He sighed, of course, prompting me to ask, "What's up?"

"The camp's moving again. People going on scout missions and the like. I still haven't got a new assignment yet."

"I wouldn't quite say that."

"Know something I don't?"

"Well. In the last attack. Armored got hit the hardest. Same with the 5th, just far less severe. I found a squad and a unit in need of a new gunner."

"Have I been officially assigned to them yet? Not yet, but Lu Ten told me that they're expecting a replacement soon."

"Can I talk to him? Lu Ten?"

"Nah. He's off to talk with Admiral Chan."

"Admiral Chan? Why?"

"With the 5th out of the game? We need somebody else to cover the Northern Front. He put me in charge of finding you a new assignment."

"So you're the one who found this new position for me?"

"More or less."

"Good. It's about time I got off my ass."

As he attempted to rise, I put a hand in front of him to stop him, saying "Not yet, you aren't."

"And why's that?"

"You think I'm going to deliver them an, at best, half functioning firebender? No. You and me. We're just getting started. Now get back up. You have a lot more training in front of you."


	36. Chapter 34: Squad Iron Fire

**Luke**

2 weeks passed before I was "ready", at least by Danev's standards. I knew that even after those 2 weeks, I wasn't ready for any real combat. Outside of a moving vehicle, I'd literally be caught dead. Moving was a struggle, putting one leg in front of the other a conscious and painful effort. I still had no feeling in my right arm that remained blinded around my neck, held in a constant position. I felt absolutely nothing in that arm, thus moving me to make a deliberate effort to do whatever necessary to be able to fight even half competently with my offhand. It wasn't easy. I gained an edge over Danev that first time, but from that point on, I lost time and time again. Improvement was hard to observe, but he countered saying it was slight, but it was there, which, frankly, did little to raise my spirits.

I was quite literally a cripple. As temporary as the medics said it was, I was half of the fighter I used to be, and I wasn't particularly a master warrior back then anyway. There was only one field where I could actually see a form of improvement. My bending. Not only was my aim becoming more accurate, but I began to feel the strength of my bending becoming greater as though, lacking one output being my right arm, it concentrated itself to my left. I knew it didn't work that way though. I knew that wasn't how supposed "chi" or whatever it was called was supposed to work.

All the same. I hardly understood even a portion of what bending was. I had only been one myself for around half a year and was no doubt a novice at that. Gan and Gi Gu used to tell me they could constantly see me getting better, but I found that hard to bel- _No. Stop thinking about them. It's over. They're gone._

I had my doubts about this new squad I was being assigned to. I had read over the details of them. Crimson Army, Steel Dragon Battalion, Scorched Platoon, Squad Iron Fire. Much more creative names than in the 5th Corps. I had to give them that much credit. But names didn't mean shit on the field.

Then I saw it again. The same image that came to my mind almost every hour of the damn day. The top half of Zand's tank coming straight off from the impact of the blast of solid Earth, sending it plummeting straight downwards onto the Iron Gauntlet, tearing it apart from that iron chain and the only ting keeping that tank secured to the wall. That chain tearing out with that horrible metallic screech and the tank plummeting down to the Earth, straight past us, missing us by inches. No fancy names saved the Iron Gauntlet.

I knew one thing as I walked through the camp, somehow on my own towards where my new assignment was camped. I knew that I wasn't going to make the same mistakes. With Gan and Gi Gu, I made the decision to become their friends. Where did that get me? Now they were dead, I was alive, and I could still feel their combined conscience wearing me down, as I still remember Gi Gu going from talking to silence in the span of a single second and the terrified look in Gan's eyes as he saw what I was about to do. For all intents and purposes, his death was on my hands. It was an unreasonable thought. If we had stayed up there, and I hadn't done what I did, we would doubtlessly both be dead, but that was of little consolation. I made the decision I made not just because I knew it was our safest bet at survival, but because I knew I was scared. I wasn't afraid to admit that to myself. I did what I did because I wanted to live.

This time around, I avowed to do two things: to not become attached to these new people. The second I did, I put myself at risk of the consequences that would proceed when they inevitably died. And two, I vowed to limit myself to only one emotion while I was on that field. Anger. I was a firebender. Our emotions are what strengthens us. One above all the others. Anger. And by Raava, I had a lot of pent up anger I was ready to release. This squad was a means of putting me back on that field, because I wasn't done yet. Half a cripple as I was, I was no less dedicated. Only more-so to bringing this city down. And nothing was going to stand in my way.

So by the time I got to the spot of the camp where Squad Iron Fire had set themselves up, I knew my purpose there. They didn't have to like me. I didn't have to like them. I just had to get back out there.

I stopped a good 50 feet away from the camp, getting my first impression of it before stepping any further inside of it. The tanks were the first things I saw. 4 of them, lacking 1 that any other armored tank squad would have had. All the same model, except for one. Where the gunner's turret was supposed to be situated, it was stripped off, the seat exposed. Except it wasn't. A wooden ballista was attached to the top of the tank, bolted down and secured, perfectly fireable from the gunner's seat. It scarified protection for firepower, but damn did that ballista look good up there, ready to load on command with the side mounted bolt rack and a loading mechanism that looked like all it required was the flip of a lever to load another round.

Somehow, that sight had gotten me excited. It sounds rather simple, but it was a nice change to see that I was actually part of a competent army now. Iroh definitely had a better grasp on this siege than Zahckrael ever would have had. It was probably for the best he was naught but a cold carcass in his command tent now, but I could say the same for the men under his command. Those were almost 5000 soldiers that could have served as actual competent soldiers under the Dragon's command. What a waste.

It was a while past midday, but not quite dark yet, so there was no fire burning in that camp, but all the same, I saw 3 silhouettes gathered around the fire pit. One looked to be reading, one whittling, and another sharpening a blade. Beyond them, 2 were engaged in target practice, firing crossbow bolts at target dummies attired in Earth nation apparel, very similar to the targets I would train with. Two further on were sparring with sparring swords and I wondered how to make my approach until the whittling soldier decided the choice shouldn't belong to me. Putting down his wooden block and his carving knife, he said something that I could make out to be "Shit. Is that the replacement?"

"Can't be." Said the one sharpening hush dagger. "He's just a damn kid."

"So are we. He's just a bit younger. Hey kid? You looking for Iron Fire Squad?"

 _Great._ I thought to myself. _He's friendly. Why'd he have to be friendly?_ "Yeah." I responded. I take it you're them?"

"Indeed we are. Welcome to the party!"

 _They just had to be nice._

I tried not to allow myself to fall into a false sense of camaraderie and friendship as I made my way forward, trying to reassure into thinking not everyone would be near as nice as him. I walked towards the fire as he motioned me over. Those previously busy at other tasks began to put them aside to look at the newcomer, being me, and I felt myself remembering my first day with the Hornets. All too similar situations with, most like, far too similar outcomes.

I could now see the figure of those who had previously been silhouettes. The one who greeted me over, he was undoubtedly the youngest of the 3 gathered around the fire. He had dark brown hair that approached black, a face that, despite showing weariness, remained optimism. His wide eyes and big smile only helped to further along that view of him. He along with all others, were taller by me, but he was obviously one of the shortest among this group, I thought, placing him at around 5'7. He met me midway on my way to the fire and motioned me to sit at an unoccupied log in front of the fire, saying "Name's Zek. The one with the book who still hasn't noticed you is Haz", he said, motioning to the bookworm who gave a wave with his right hand while maintaining his grip on his material with his left. He was a bit taller, bearing short black hair, thin of face with weathered features. "The one with the knife who has noticed you, but just doesn't care is Chez." He added, nodding to the long black haired man I would place as the oldest in the trio, being only shorter than Haz, but far more intimidating, bearing a long red scare that spanned from the bottom right of his face, just below his mouth, to the top left, right above his left eye, cutting straight through the eyebrow where it clearly wasn't planning on growing back any time soon. "And you are?" He asked.

"It took me a while to realize Zek was talking to me, but as soon as I sat down on that log, it came to me, and I was able to answer with "Luke."

"Luke? Weird name. Where's it from?"

"Nowhere. I made it up."

"Made it up? Shit. That's allowed. Wish I had known that a long while ago. I would've chosen something far more badass than 'Zek.' So where you from, Luke?" He asked, sitting down across the fire-pit from me as the two others didn't deign to leave their tasks and the rest in the camp, having taken their accounts of me, went to their own business.

"Citadel. Fire Nation city a few hundred miles to the East. Fun place."

"Is it. That's the slums isn't it?"

"The entire city isn't a slum" interceded Haz, not looking up from his book. "They got big industry in the center. Just have a slum surrounding it for a human shield."

"Not surprising" Zek said with a dying grin, adding "That's the Fire Nation for ya'. How long you been in the army, Luke?"

The way he kept on saying my name. He was trying to remember it. How new was he to this war? How few people had he seen die to realize it wasn't a bright idea to go on and start remembering names?

"'Bout half a year now."

"Armored?"

"Yeah. 15th."

He whistled a falling note akin to that of a dropping bomb, adding "That's rough. Heard what happened during the assault. Not fun, that."

"Nope." I simply answered, directing my gaze to the fire-pit and how deep it went, wondering it they had dug up dead bodies here when setting up camp, next to that wondering if the bodies of the 5th Corps were already buried by the excessive rain and landfall, and who next would be finding there bodies, and how many insects and rodents had already burrowed through their corpse-"

"Luke?" I heard Zek's voice ask, thankfully taking me out off that all-to grim train of thought.

"Yeah. What?"

"I asked if you were a bender."

"Uh yeah. Fire. Been practicing for about half a year now."

"Oh. So you're good" he asked, containing as though nothing had happened.

Before I could answer, Chez interceded, saying "How good can he be? He has one arm. His left one too."

"I have two arms."

"Dead weight that other one. You'd be better off cutting it away. It's weighing you down."

"Seems like a bad long term investment to me. A broken arm can be fixed, but I don't think I'd grow a new one back any time soon."

At that, Zek chuckled, but Chez remained convinced, setting aside his knife, looking at me straight into my eyes, saying "Dying out there, or hell, getting picked up by the Earth Kingdom. That's a far worse long term investment. Ou know what they do to those captured. I hear they erase their minds, put them into their own uniforms, and send them to the front lines to waste enemy amm-"

"Thanks, Chez. We get the picture." Said Zek. "The grim, gory, depressing picture. This kid was in the 15th. I think he's seen enough of that shit for the last month."

"He hasn't seen shit. If he's alive I doubt he was really part of that battle." He turned to me now. "Where were you, kid. Rearguard? Skirmishes?"

"Van, asshole. I've seen more than I've cared to see, but if it makes you feel better and less intimidated by a 12 year old you feel the need to establish your dominance to, I didn't survive cause I'm a good soldier. I got lucky. That's all any of us can do here. Get lucky. The good soldiers die. The lucky ones live."

At that, Chez eased up, saying "Guess he isn't as much a dumbass as you, Zek." Proceeding that, he gathered his knife and his whetstone, standing and leaving the fire as Zek stayed behind at the fire, waiting a few seconds before saying "The fuck did I do?"

I could see now the relationship between these three. It wasn't just a squad relationship. "You guys share a tank?" I asked.

"Yeah. Well. Kinda. I'm the driver. Grumpy's the gunner. Bookworm's not with us though."

"Why's he so pissed at you, then?"

"He's always pissed, but I guess now more than normal since he blames me for that scar."

"Why's that?"

"Going up the wall. There was a rock coming towards us, so I went to the left of it's path to get out of its way. The rock missed us, but I drove us right in front of another tank that hit us in the rear, sending us forward, distracting Chez so he couldn't see the crossbowman above us who shot him right at the face, grazing him, giving him that scar. Never got over it."

"Seem's immature. That's how the world works."

"Oh. He's not pissed about that. He couldn't give two shits about his face. He's pissed cause he said the path right was much more clear and that if he hadn't turned around at the right moment, the bolt would have killed him, we'd be short a gunner, and we'd no doubt have been killed on that wall. He's really practical like that. Or at least, he likes to think that he is."

I was looking around now, seeing far too few people to account for a full tank squadron. "So where's the rest of the squad. Is this it?"

"Oh no. Our commander's off on a scouting mission. Be careful around him. Then, aside from that, the rest are sleeping and we're missing 3 guys. 2 gunners, one of them being our commander's, and a co-pilot.

At that moment, I began to hear the noises of machinery in the distance, thinking it before as just the movements of the camp until the noise began to close the distance between us and it.

"Huh," said Zek. "Speak of the Devil."

"That's him then?" I asked as the tank came over the series of hills, approaching the rest of the tanks, parking."

"Yep. Still missing it's gunner. That's where you come in, I guess. Best to introduce yourself now and get it over with. Let's go."

So I got up and approached the armored vehicle that, at the moment, was unloading. The first man I saw to get out of the tank was a more thickly built one, wiping the sweat from his brow as he slid down the tank, pulling his gear with him.

"That one's Gordez. Bad fighter. Good mechanic. If something feels wrong with your tank, from a loose bolt to a missing tread, he's your guy. He won't only fix the problem, he'll improve it tenfold. Smart guy, him, but kinda awkward. Don't bother introducing yourself. He prefers to get to know somebody before introducing himself. Evening, Gordez!"

The man was wider than anyone else in this camp I'd seen thus far, but I doubted much of it was fat as much as muscle, but he seemed to me a gentle giant of sorts, wth a fatter, kinder face. Gordez turned to wave, seemingly excited at hearing the voice of a friend, but upon seeing a newcomer, being me, he returned to a ore shy self, giving a small wave before gathering his gear and leaving about his business.

Then, coming afterwards, out of that tank where I could now see the impacts of battle after battle from warped metal to scorched armor platings and missing paint, came who I assumed to be the commander, wearing a Staff Sergeant's rank pauldron.

He lifted himself out of the tank, not caring to wipe his brow, and pulled his gear out of the tank's cargo compartment from the back, closing the hatches and locking them until he turned towards the camp to relieve himself of duty, spotting Zek and nodding in acknowledgement with a small smile until he saw me, and it quickly died.

On the bright side, the enthusiasm of Zek was only limited to him and I didn't find myself needing to worry about growing close to anyone else in this camp, at least up to this point.

This Sergeant was a well built man, fitting his armor well, with a weathered face, despite being obviously young. All the same, he bore the markings of a growing star he and beard that spoke out as his dominating feature. He had thick, dark brown brows that seemed set on a downward angle, depicting what wasn't particularly happiness at that moment. "Who's this?" He asked.

"Your replacement gunner." Zek started, making introduction first, which frankly, I had no problem with. "He's a good firebender, from Citadel and-"

"No."

"No? No what?"

"He's not my gunner."

"Sir. I'm sorry but I could have sworn I read the papers right. It said he was to be your new gunner. Your tank. I remembered what it said. Unit 147. Only one in our squad without a real name."

"I don't care what the papers say. He's not my gunner." He turned to me now. "How old are you, kid? 10?"

I knew I didn't look 10. I wanted to think I looked older, but all the same, I was thrown off guard by him. I expected an attitude, but this."

"12, sir." I responded. As little as I wanted to make friends, I didn't want to make any enemies either, which seemed to be the path I was on at this moment.

"Hmphh. 12."

He walked past me and my outstretched hand to shake his. I turned to Zek who shrugged and turned back to the Sergeant then, asking "Is that a problem, sir?"

"Yes. It's Saturday. You're supposed to be at a park or some shit with your friends. Hell you doing here?"

"Didn't exactly grow up with parks and playground, sir. This seemed the better option."

"He's from Citadel, sir." Said Zek. "You know. The slums."

"I don't care where he's from. I'm not putting a kid, a fucking 12 year old on top of a war machine. That sounds to me like a good way of not only getting his head blown off, but those of my squad too. Forget it."

"Sir." I interrupted, not willing to risk a chance of going back in the waiting pool for a new squad, missing my chance to get back out there. "I can firebend. I can handle myself. I won't be a burden."

"I said forget it. I don't care if you're Sozin reincarnate. I'm not putting my life and those of my men in the hands of a damn kid."

"I can fight!" I wasn't losing my chance.

"Luke." Zek advised, whispering. "Don't."

But I wouldn't listen. "I'm going back out there, okay Sergeant. I don't care how, but I'm going back out on that field one way or another." The sergeant stopped in his tracks to listen. _Good._ "With or without you. I'm tired of letting the Earth Kingdom get away with killing those around me. I'm ready to hit back. I can fight. I can kill. I'm as much a soldier anyone else here. I know you've lost men and I know you need replacements. Here I am. I may be missing use of my good arm, but I'm a good shot and you'd be an idiot not to put me on one of those tanks. It doesn't matter what age I am. If there's one thing this war does, it's advancing that whole damn process. So I'm going, alright?"

"Not on my tank. Not as a gunner, you're not."

"Then what-"

"Zek. You vouch for this kid?"

"I've only known him for a few minutes, but shit. He survived the last assault, so. I guess."

"Your co-pilot, Hizo. He's your gunner now, alright?"

"So Chez?"

"Mine now. You vouch for this kid, you let a 12 year old into our camp. You watch out for him, he's your responsibility now. He's your co-pilot."

"Hey, wait a minute." We both seemed to say at the exact same time. He was wasting me as a co-pilot. I was a gunner. I was a fighter.

"I won't hear it. This kid is yours now. Have fun, kid."

"My name's."

"I don't give a shit what your name is. You're going to be dead within a few days anyway as it is so I don't see why it really matters that I know yours or you know mine, understood?"

I understood all to well. His thoughts were the same as my own. And while there was always the juvenile reaction of being called out, inside, I agreed with and respected what he had to say. So yes. I understood. "Yes, sir."

"Good. You're dismissed, kid. I hope you know what you're getting into. Good luck."

And with that, he left. And not to retaliate against him, but merely to reassure myself, I said all that could come to mind: "I won't need it."


	37. Chapter 35: A Discrete Entryway

**Danev**

I never really made a habit of speaking to people in armored divisions, Luke being the exception of course, but I've come to find that on an organizational standpoint, we're pretty much polar opposites. The infantry, that I find myself being an active member of, is meant to be a slow, but immovable force. We move forward foot by foot, and don't allow ourselves to be pushed back. The armored, well, they're the immovable force meant to destroy people like us, trampling over barricades, trenches, fortifications, everything. We're lucky they're on our side and not the enemy's.

I'm not familiar to the politics of the Fire Nation, nor do I wish to become so, so I'm not certain if it's qualified as treasonous to say so, but if the Fire nation didn't have the advantage of technological might, we'd be screwed. We'd have lost this war years, if not decades ago. What the Earth Kingdom lacks in technology and organization, they make up for in pure determination and stubbornness, which, I guess, is the essential trait of the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation is powered by fanatic zeal and undying loyalty, yes, but what we lack in spirit, the Earth Kingdom makes up for in full.

Maybe it's the fact that they're fighting on their own soil, bleeding for every inch of land that, in all fairness, is theirs. These aren't the words that one speaks before defecting, because look, I'm not a defector. I'm just looing at the reality of this war. I've chosen my side. I chose the Fire Nation. I'm the one that made the first deal between the Hornets and the Fire Nation. I chose my allegiance years ago, even if they were allegiances made out of desperation and lack of any other real options, but that's what survival is about. And here I am, still surviving, but with thousands more at my side, with the exact same goals as me. To survive.

But all the same, the armored, I tried to avoid them in mass, but here I was, walking through their camp because I happened to know one particular new addition to it. _Damn. Maybe I should've just gotten him a position in infantry. Could've had him be a driver or some shit, I don't know. Anything to avoid this._

If I hadn't made it clear enough, the armored didn't exactly like the infantry too much either. I've overheard them once or twice and could hear the same things now. I was by no means a ranking officer, but I **was** a commander in the slightest sense now, a staff sergeant. There were men under me, which, in the eyes of others, made me a part of the problem. The armored saw the infantry as slow, lazy, and far too defensive. Which, I suppose, compared to the lightning fast attacks of the armored, was a valid complaint, but it all was relative

I found my may to the camp of the squad where Luke had been assigned and was met with a young man by the front whose features or name I didn't bother to remember when we spoke, and I asked, "Where's the newbie?" and he pointed to the tent behind him.

So I nodded to him, walked to said tent, opening the flaps to find him unpacking his gear, laying out his armor nicely alongside his weapons in a spot he already had claimed as his own. He didn't seem to notice me until I spoke, motioning him to jump at the voice of the intruder, spinning around to see me as I asked, "All settled in?"

"In the 30 minutes I've been here? Not quite. You're early."

"Figured we'd get a head start. Arm feeling good?"

"If you mean the broken one, then it's not really feeling much, but I'll be fine. Let's go."

So we got up to leave and as we left the camp, he made no moves to tell anyone where he was going or to say any goodbyes which maybe it was just me expecting too much comraderies for a 12-year-old. "What?" I asked, more mocking than not. "Not gonna say goodbye to any of your new friends?"

"No friends to say goodbye to. It's just temporary. I just need to get back out there."

"Yeah. That may take longer than you hope."

"Lu Ten's back? He say anything?"

"No. And thank Raava."

"Why's that?"

"Still haven't found a way into the city, past those damn walls."

"We're not going to brute force it again?"

"Not enough manpower. We got Lu Ten's report 2 weeks ago and Chan's fleet is in position, but after the 5th fucked everything up, we don't have enough men to take those walls the good ol' way. Lu Ten wants me to try and find a way to take those walls some other way."

"Some other way? Like what?"

"That's the problem. I have no fucking idea and he's back by this evening and I won't have shit to tell him."

We were now at the normal spot where Luke and I would spar, so I took the swords out of my sheathes, and threw one to Luke which he managed to catch cleanly by the hilt with his offhand, which, little by little, was becoming less "off".

So we began training, starting slowly to allow him to adjust, slowly picking up the pace and testing his resolve and reactions, becoming, gradually, in the time we've been training, less and less disappointed. When his right arm did eventually recover, he'd come out of this, at the very least, that much more capable a fighter, capable of fighting with even his offhand if it came down to that.

So while we fought, taking care to find a balance between making things too easy for him, and kicking his ass to a point he was learning nothing except to hate me more than he already did, he continued to ask questions regarding this "special assignment" of mine.

"So he chose **you** for this?"

"The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. I'm just surprised he trusts you so much. You're closer than I thought."

"I'm a likeable guy. Trustworthy too. Just not sure if this is exactly what I was hoping to gain out of this trust."

"Aww. Danev doesn't want to disappoint his new best friend."

For that, I swung my sword at his legs, particularly fast, evading his ill-timed block, knocking him off his feet, and promptly helping him up as he grunted, muttering "Yeah. I deserved that."

"Oh yeah. You really did."

"Look. You're worrying too much. What is it he asked from you? To find some grandiose way to blow up that wall without attracting attention. He's just fucking with you."

"Not to blow it up, dumbass. He just wants me to find some way to get inside the walls. He'll take care of the rest, but shit, I mean. How would I even go about getting inside? It's the most secure city in the world. It's not like they just have a secret tunnel going to the city."

So as I got a new grip on my blade to strike at Luke, I had to hold it back for a second when I realized that he was just standing there. I considered going through with it and hitting him across the face to remind him we were training, but something about his look said he was thinking. Thinking about something I didn't want to interrupt him from. I lowered my blade, then he spoke.

"You said you just need a way of getting inside?"

"Yeah. What? Did you suddenly remember some magic tunnel that goes underneath the city that we can easily get to?"

He paused for a second, realizing I had just struck a nerve, until he said "Yes. Exactly that."

 **Long Feng**

When the reports came in, I had to travel out of my way, all the way to the northern section of the outer wall just to see if it was true. And to my dismay, it was.

A Fire Nation fleet of around 20 warships, parallel to our walls, artillery armed, spanning our docks, blocking whatever naval capabilities we had including trade and war. And just like that, our saving grace that we found in the Water Tribe was gone. Our only supply cut off. We were officially blockaded.

Of course, we had all known it was only a matter of time. After we destroyed the 5th, we had access to trade again and we made the most of what we could with that, as little as it was. As defended and navally competent the Northern Water Tribe was, there was only so much they could do. They had no agriculture, hardly any other sources of food, save fish, and even they weren't willing to trade it all away to us. What little we took in, we gave enough to the citizenry to calm them down and avoid riots, the rest, only a measly 5% of what we took in, was put into storehouses. We had that trade going for us for barely a month. Whatever food we did have stored now, combined with what little agriculture we had in the outer ring, it wouldn't last long. I would have to talk to the district governors, but my estimate was a month. That was by no means a god number.

"I'm done here." I said to the Dai Li by my side. They nodded in a unison that both comforted me but started me whenever I saw it in action. It was difficult to believe them still human after everything. Their lack of emotions and pure discipline put them above the rest of this city's security, which, of course, was vital in these trying times, but disconcerting all the same. I wondered sometimes if this was what Kyoshi had had in mind when she founded her secret police all those centuries ago.

The men guided me to the platform at the rear of the wall and I took my stand on mind, locking my feet and digging them ever so slightly into the ground in preparation for the rapid descent, and all at once, felt the air around me shoot upwards as we were lowered to the ground, over 300 feet, in the span of 5 seconds.

I stepped off as two soldiers brought the platform back up and I was guided back to the main Palace by the streets. We took back alleys only in this part of town. The layout always angered me somewhat. There were two rings. The inner and the outer, with the outer being primarily greenspace, parks, and agriculture. Inside the inner ring, however, there were 3 districts. One for the poor, the middle class, and the nobility. An entire part of the city was being wasted on people who couldn't find jobs for themselves, brought disease and crime into the city, and relied solely on social welfare. Tens if no hundreds of thousands were in this city illegally as well, refugees, having no form of identification of Earth Kingdom citizenship. They came into this city, with their problems, preferring to turns to illicit forms of making money rather than actually getting jobs which were by no means in short demand. They could find work as craftsmen, factory workers, police, soldiers, but no, I thought with disdain, they preferred to make life a pain for people who had a right to be here, forming gangs, participating in crime, and running to us for help whenever they were in trouble, letting us waste our dwindling resources on the likes of them. I would have to rewrite some legislature once I was back in my office.

And soon enough, I was, but the paperwork Joo Dee had already placed on my desk put aside any thoughts of a calm evening dedicated to working on something simple, like the refugee crisis.

On top was a pile of letters from the separate governors of the inner ring's districts. Joo Dee always knew exactly what I needed. I was starting to think a simple raise wouldn't be good enough for her. I unsealed the first letter, and of course, was proved right, as Joo Dee had already gone ahead upon seeing my anger at the news of the blockade and had received reports from the governors of the separate districts. And as much as I appreciated her initiative, the news was not nearly as heart-warming.

I opened the letters individually, reading their reports, logging them, placing them aside, opening a new one, reading it, and doing the same, organizing the letters in piles of district numerical order, logging their numbers accordingly on a single sheet of paper, putting the numbers together and came out with a figure that seemed to reach out with invisible arms and slap me across the face.

It turns out I had been overestimating how much food we had inside the city. We didn't have a month like I hoped. No. We had a week.

We had a week of food left to feed this city of hundreds of thousands. There was a clear path I could see, a clear order of events that would play out. With no food, the people rebel, the refugees particularly as they believe themselves entitled to the food they don't work for. People rebel, people die. They riot, storm the inner districts, and there's chaos. In the chaos, Ba Sing Se falls. The Fire Nation comes in, everyone dies, including me, and the nation falls.

"Ju Dee?" I asked into the speaker system of pipes running through my office area in the grand palace.

"Yes, Grand Secretariat?"

"Do you have any numbers for the current military personnel of Ba Sing Se?"

"I left them on your desk, sir."

"Of course you did." I said, smiling as I found the file in the pile she had placed before me. I looked at the numbers, reading the figure to come down to 11, 451. A grave number.

"is that all, sir?" she asked, following the silence I had failed to fill upon reading the report.

"Not quite. Can you please summon General How to come to my office? After you do so, you'll be free to retire for the evening and night, I'll have no further need of you."

"Are you certain?"

"Positive. See your family. Get some sleep. Goodnight, Joo Dee."

"Goodnight, sir."

So as I left her to her task of arranging one final meeting of the day for me, I took out my map of the city. Only 11 thousand men to defend a city of hundreds of thousands, and, when it did come down to it, defend **against** those hundreds of thousands. I placed my hands against my head and sighed. How did it come down to this? How did it only take a full-scale siege to evaluate our military capacity?

I put the thoughts aside and paid every inch of my attention to that map of our city. We knew where the attack would come from. The Fire Nation couldn't spread their forces too thin to attack from multiple angles. So we had an advantage in numbers and defense for their attack, but that wasn't the real threat at this moment.

I knew where to expect an attack even before the would-be attackers did. I looked through my desk and brought out a map of the inner ring, paying close attention to the wall dividing the middle class and poor. For a brief moment, I considered drawing in the defensive barrier, but the majority of military bases and police stations were **in** the middle district and I couldn't risk those falling. There were only limited amounts of weaponry in the lower district in small scale police stations in jails, but in the wrong hands, they could amount to far more than we'd give them credit for.

I knew what had to be done, and I'd make How see things my way. If he really loved his King and his Nation, he'd have no choice. The end was coming, and we'd have to be ready.

 **Luke**

"Yeah. I read the reports for that battle." Said I also remember reading that firebenders went inside and burnt it to the ground." Said the staff sergeant of my new squad who I now understood to go by the nickname 'Boss' and nothing else.

Zek interrupted before Danev could speak his part, saying "can't really burn to the ground something that's already underground, right?"

"Not now, Zek." Boss spoke again, not yelling, but definitely lowering the temperature of what seemed to be the entire outdoors that late evening."

"I asked Luke the same thing, but he was there. He remembers what he saw. Right, Luke?"

I spoke up on cue now, saying "I know I didn't see that tunnel collapse. If anything, only part of that room did, and we could dig that out easily. Past that damage though, there should be tunnels that lead straight to Ba Sing Se. That's our entry."

"No. I'm not wasting my squad for some special forces crap. And what the hell makes you think you can come in and use **my** men for one of **your** missions."

"I have authorization from Lieutenant General Lu Ten to use whatever resources necessary to find a discrete way into that city to tear those walls to the ground. I need a squad that can be quick and effective to do this in less than an hour. Two tops."

"And that's not going to be us. I won't allow it."

"You don't have to." Danev said again, taking on his role of newfound authority in a manner that suited him from his days in the Hornets. I smiled. He knew command and he knew it well. "I did."

"Then back up a damn second, okay? How do you plan on doing this? Are you expecting us to bring along shovels and pickaxes, go into those tunnels and chip away at the rocks until we find a magic tunnel? That is not a one to two-hour job!"

And of all the people gathered around, the one I least expected to speak, ended up being the one to do so. Gordez spoke up, saying, "if we detach the hook from the extending chain off on of the tanks, we could extend it under ground through the tunnel, attach it to a weak point in the rocks, and tear that wall away." At that, Danev seemed to nod as thought saying "Yeah. That's how."

"We're undermanned!"

"You have 5 tanks and an adept firebender. If anything, we're overmanned for some glorified excavation."

 _Hmm. Adept Firebender. I like that._

Boss had nothing to say at that until Danev spoke, saying "Look. You don't have to come along, but I'm taking these men. We have a job to do."

"No. My men are going nowhere without me. I'll come along, but if I see you put their lives in jeopardy for something I deem not worth it, it'll be no means be treasonous to kill you and bring my men back. Understood?"

"How will I know what you deem 'worth it?'"

"You'll know. Understood?"

"Understood. I don't plan on killing any of our own guys here."

"You better hope not. Because I have no qualms with killing anyone who puts **my** men's lives, below their own.

"Then we understand each other. We leave in 10."

Danev walked away only after turning to me and giving him a smug smile which I returned, glad to see him in the shoes he was made for once again, until Zek came up to me saying, he was in Citadel with you?"

"Yeah. That obvious?"

"Not really. I could tell you're friends, plus we've heard all about his squad of other Citadel kids. Most of them cocky except for you slum ones."

"Too bad we're a minority."

"Too bad indeed. Anyway, let me show you to your new tank. You haven't gotten a chance to check that baby out yet."

So he guided me along the camp where tankmen where now loading their pride and joys with equipment and ammunition. I already had my armor on and bags packed, expecting Danev to get his way, so I had no need to make a stop on my way there.

We went up the hill to where the steel landship were parked and before stopping to introduce the tank, he called out "Hey Hizo! You in there?!"

"Nope!" He called from inside the tank.

"Alright! We'll we're waiting for you. We're going off to see some action!"

He now turned to me, grin on his face, motioning to the tank in a showmanship-like manner, saying "This here, is our pride and joy, Shanzi."

"Shani?" I asked.

"Don't you fucking dare!" I heard Hizo call from the inside of, Shanzi, I guess.

"Yep. Named her after Hizo's old girlfriend back in Yu Dao. Big as fuck, made of steel, ice cold, and has had more men inside of her than we can count. Isn't that right, Hizo?"

"Fuck off, Zek."

"Yeah." Zek said, turning back to me. "He knows."

I couldn't stop myself from smiling at that even as Hizo stuck his head out of the tank, looking down on us, saying "Hey dipshits. You coming in? She needs a lot of handwork before she's ready to get going."

"Oh yeah!" Zek yelled. Another reason she's called Shanzi.

I had to chuckle at that as Hizo shook his head, retreating back into the tank, muttering "Asshole."

"Alright, Luke." Zek said, enthusiastically as always. "Put your load in Shanzi's rear, climb into her, and get comfortable. Remember to strap yourself in tight. She likes it rough.

"I will shoot you!" Hizo called in one last effort before settling in. As instructed, I loaded my bag into the tank, before turning to Zek and asking, "Where's your gear?"

"Oh. I don't need much. Just some light armor and a lucky knife. Only 2 hours at most. I'll be fine."

"Fair enough" I said, before climbing up the tank to get into the gunner's seat, opening the hatch until I saw Hizo sitting there, look at me, and say "Fuck you looking at? You're the co-pilot. Remember?"

"Oh. Right. My bad." _Stupid Boss. "_ Sorry."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just don't make that same mistake while I'm having me-time."

I looked over to Zek, seeking elaboration, but was shot down the moment he developed a grim look on his face while shaking his head in a way that said, "Don't ask."

So I didn't. I did as I was told. I entered Shanzi through the rear, got into position, strapped myself in as per instructions, having slightly difficulty with my still suspended arm, and readied myself for the ride ahead.

And soon enough, the tanks began moving into position, making final checks, as I readjusted myself to this view from the tank I had never before experienced a real drive from. It was odd. I felt totally devoid of power. I was no driver. And I was no gunner. _What the hell was I expected to do here?_

Before I could ponder that question any longer, the tank shot into motion, and we were off to the world outside this camp. A world I hadn't seen in far too long. I was finally back out there, and despite the safety that came with the little risk of the task ahead of us, I found myself praying that, soon enough, I'd get my chance to fight. Get my chance at revenge. I still remembered Gan and Gi Gu, as much as I tried to not see their faces every waking moment of every day, but their memory gave me strength. The more I thought about them, the more I thought about what I'd do the people who killed them. And in these days, that was all I needed.

And so soon enough, there we were, the memories of that listening post flooding back, now reduced to ashes as the memories came flooding back.

Where once an intricate camp had been set up, the remains of an Earth Kingdom camp remained, laden with broken woodwork, scattered weapons, and scattered corpses. Except, the weapons and corpses weren't there. I can understand if the weapons were looted, but where were the bodies. Something wasn't-

"Ambush!" I heard from above me. And everything moved in a flash. Boss's tank shot into action, rolling ahead of ours, taking a hit directly into the side in place of us, nearly flipping the tank over, immobilizing it. From behind us, another Earth bender shot out of the ground, firing a rock at our tank, hitting us square in the side as arrows began making their barrage as well, and the rest of Squad Iron Fire shot into action.

I was trying to get a view at the battle ahead of us when I heard a grunt above me as Hizo took an arrow in the shoulder and fell off of his seat onto the ground of the tank as Zek turned around asking "Hizo?! You good?" before taking an arrow of his own into the right side of his torso, fortunately missing his heart and going in very shallow, but all the same immobilizing him.

I looked in front of me, seeing that same archer who had gotten a lucky hit on the two of them just as he fired at me, and I ducked into cover, letting the arrow hit my seat behind me before coming up and shooting my own shot, hitting the archer square in the chest, knocking him over, dead.

"Nice." I heard Zek say weakly to my side. I turned to him to see the approving look in his eyes turn to fear as he looked in front of us. I saw it too, and Earth bender climbing Boss's tank. I remembered what had happened the last time I saw the maneuver executed. So when Zek yelled "Hizo! Take him out!" not remembering Hizo was incapacitated, I didn't waste a second.

The turret of Boss's tank was swiveling into position to target the bender scaling their vehicle, but they wouldn't be quick enough. I climbed into the gunner's chair, opening the hatch above me at the same moment the Earth bender pried open the hatch to Unit 147, ready to drop the explosives, and I took my shot. It hit the bender square in the back as he fell over backwards, dead, hitting the ground right on top of his explosives which promptly blew up, blowing his bodies into hundreds if not thousands of pieces. And as soon as it had begun, it was over, hearing my own heartbeat, looking at the expression on Boss's face as he rose out of the gunner's hatch, looking down at the mangled corpse that in an alternate world would've been his killer and that of his crew, then looked at me.

"What did you say your name was?"


	38. Chapter 36: The Hours Before

**Danev**

"Alright!" I yelled to the nearest passing soldiers, still shaking despite the fact that the fighting had ended hours ago, and we were already back at camp. "get the wounded out of the tanks and to the medical tents now!"

The nearest troops didn't even stop to take my name or rank, but just ran off towards the tanks, ready to help whoever was inside until the nearest one, unit 147 popped open and the squad commander came stumbling out. "No." he said weakly at first. "No." he repeated, louder this time to gain my attention. "We have our own medic we trust."

"You're injured." I stated to him in what I only realized a second after saying was an incredibly stupid statement as though I believed he hadn't noticed on his own. And besides, the least I could do was provide them with the quickest medical attention after leading them into that ambush.

 _It wasn't for nothing_ I told myself. While the wounded were stabilized, and drivers were swapped, Luke had gotten out of his tank and gone into those tunnels amidst the confusion despite the fact there could have been hundreds of earth benders inside and went through the trouble of hooking his tank to the debris and hauling it out to clear the tunnels.

We were anticipating a second attack and had fortified ourselves despite the fact that a quarter of us were injured, bleeding and requiring medical attention, fast. So, in about an hour, when no attack came and the injured were stabilized for the ride ahead, and the sun was fully down, we left.

I was too nervous about any of them dying under my watch to consider just what we had found. _It._ The back door. The way into Ba-Sing-Se undetected. And the fact that there was no resistance in the tunnel and no second ambush meant we were scot-free. They had no idea we had been there and had access to their city. Though. We couldn't be sure the tunnels were unmolested from that point to the wall. There could be natural cave-ins, but the fact it was being guarded suggested otherwise. I think we did it.

I realized then there would be convincing that stubborn brick of a commander and nodded in surrender, allowing him to take himself and his men back to their camp. _Wait. Where's Luke?_ I had a list of items to thank him for from the information regarding the tunnels to his initiative in clearing them. I started towards the one I recognized as the tank he was stationed in when the hurried off in a roar of engines and a cloud of smoke that left me gasping for air up until the moment I heard Lu Ten's voice behind me saying "Kind of late for a stroll, is it not?"

Instincts kicked in and I spun around to salute. However, the illusion of formality was broken as another cough came to my throat and I was left wheezing while he stood in front of me, cross-armed, and grinning as I could see when I had recovered enough to look him eye-to-eye.

"You find the best stuff at this time of the night." I quipped back.

By then the formality had dissipated, I dropped my salute, and we shook hands, approaching each other, and giving each other our customary pats on the back indicating what would be called by some, a "bro-hug".

We pulled back as I asked, "So when did you get back?"

"Just about quarter of an hour ago. We're still unpacking the convoy."

"We got the news that Chan is blockading the city now. Your handiwork, I imagine?"

"I guess you could say that. It's a rare pleasure to find a Fire Nation officer that actually cares about his nation and not his own personal glory."

"A rare thing indeed." I agreed. "I still have yet to meet one."

"Oh shut up. Don't make me pull rank on you."

"Pff. I've heard those threats before."

"Probably why I had to save your ass from Zahckrael and the rest of the 5th. You would have gotten your ass in front of a firing squad by now."

"Aww. My hero." I said mockingly, raising the pitch of my voice as part of the joke, returning it back to normal to return to official business despite my lack of willingness to end the fun so early. "So you want to hear what I found?"

"I'm guessing the answer to the task I gave you almost a month ago?"

"Yep. Just came back with the answer."

"Waited 'till the last minute, then? I'm disappointed. What did you find? Actually, my father should probably be around to hear this. I haven't greeted him yet. I'll meet you at the command pavilion in 5?"

"Yes, sir. See you then."

"Good." With that, he saluted and went off in the direction of the hill overlooking the camp. A swanky spot. A very desirable tactical position.

And in less than 5 minutes times, I was up there as well. I, to my relief, had been expected and the red-clad royal guards at the entrance parted their spears, allowing me to pass.

They hadn't had the guards at the entrance to the tent before. That had changed when a drugged and crippled Luke had crawled through the camp in the middle of a storm and walked in on them demanded he get assigned to a new squad.

I smiled at the thought of it as I entered that tent, but under far more preferable conditions. I was being waited on. But to my surprise, it wasn't just Iroh and Lu Ten. It was the upper command down as low as the individual battalion commanders. _How had they assembled this quickly?_

The tension in the room was now clear as I took my seat, my entire body now on auto-pilot, a knot in my stomach that had somehow converted my earlier pride in the mission to a newfound sense of fear and concern. _No. They didn't know about the mission yet. I was assuming, now._

Iroh spoke first, setting the tone for the meeting, and a serious one at that. "We've been informed by my son that you've discovered a way into Ba-Sing-Se?"

"Yes sir." I replied immediately, realizing inwardly that I still hadn't quite composed myself which was confirmed when Iroh spoke, not in response, but merely in a reassuring manner, saying "You can relax. This is just a formality."

That calmed me down a bit. I knew he was right. The hard part was over. I was alive. I had completed my task. So with that, I found myself growing calmer, and without waiting to be asked for further details, I took the initiative, continuing, saying "Yes sir. The listening post we attacked a few months back. Sergeant Luke, now of Squad Iron Fire informed me of tunnels he saw believes ran under Ba-Sing-Se. Apparently, Earth Kingdom soldiers had used the tunnel to reinforce the defending force during the attack and even today, when we were ambushed."

"I'm sorry." Lu Ten interrupted. "These are a lot of details in really quick succession. You mentioned an ambush. When was this and who was ambushed?"

"Sorry, sir." I said, becoming slightly on edge again. "I'll go further back. Earlier this evening, I decided to act on the tip given to me by sergeant Luke."

"How did this sergeant Luke come to know about this tunnel?" interrupted the Commander of the 14th. The same one who had previously been vehemently against Lu Ten's plan of infiltration.

"When the now Crimson Army attacked the listening post to reclaim it for the Fire Nation, Luke, then a corporal I believe, had participated in the attack and was with a squad of Fire Benders to burn out the personnel in the tunnels."

"If this was around 2 months ago, wasn't he at the time with the 5th?"

"Yes, Commander Zingwe." Interceded Lu Ten on my behalf. "But he had been sent to relay a message to our army and we decided not to wait any longer and attack the listening post."

"The contents of this message?"

"Merely that the 5th was in position. But we're not here to discuss the details of a military operation months old and now only slightly relevant. Where were we, staff sergeant?"

"The ambush, sir. I recruited Squad Iron Fire, requiring a mobile unit, preferably with somebody who already knew this tunnel system, and led brought them to the listening post where we were ambushed."

"Do you have a report?" asked Iroh."

"No, sir. I only returned 5 minutes ago."

"Casualties?" asked Lu Ten.

"Only minor injuries. And we found the tunnel and cleared it of debris. Luke reported to me that it had been cleared and seemed to lead to Ba Sing Se."

"'Seem', 'believes', 'apparently', these are a lot of uncertainties. Can we be certain these tunnels actually lead to Ba Sing Se? Did anybody actually go to see where they led?"

"No, sir. We didn't have time and we had injured men."

There was silence for a while as some commanders began talking amongst themselves, including Lu Ten with his father. Now saying it out loud, hearing it in my own ears, I realized just how little of a success my mission really had been. I mean, really? How **did** I even know they led to Ba Sing Se? But they had to. Right? Where else. There were no other outposts in that area. At least none we could see.

Eventually though, order had resumed in the tent and Lu Ten became the first one to speak, saying "It's a difficult position, Lu Ten. We have no clear answers right now and you walked into an Earth Kingdom ambush. They know where we are."

"There were no survivors, sir."

"All the same, when the soldiers don't return, those tunnels are compromised. They'll have known we were there."

He was right. I knew that much, but, it couldn't have been for nothing. There had to be a way.

"I'm sorry, staff sergeant. I don't think we can act on this. There simply isn't time."

"Maybe there is, sir." I said, determined not to lose this. He entrusted me with one task. One simple task. I had already fucked up by waiting until the last minute. I wouldn't let the entire thing become a failure. Not now. "You said the purpose of this would be infiltration into the Earth Kingdom city, right sir?"

"Yes. Your point?"

"So you have trained infiltration units ready to deploy?"

"I do, yes."

"Then deploy us. I know the schedule normal units take for graveyard shifts. That's what that ambush was. They saw us coming with the tanks, but they had no reason to assume far ahead of time we were coming. They were simply lookouts at that outpost. We secured the tunnels and made sure nobody returned to the city. They're not expected back in Ba Sing Se until morning. We have time. I can take whatever infiltration units you have ready and get them through those tunnels."

"But we don't even know those tunnels lead to the city."

"Then worst-case scenario we come back home by tomorrow morning empty handed, but we lose nothing. I know what to do in Ba Sing Se. Find a way to help blow through those walls. I know what my mission is."

Then there was another silence in that room. A silence that allowed me to realize the pure insanity of my plan. But it wasn't my plan. It was a plan that had already been approved. One approved because I had experience in just this regard. Infiltration of enemy fortifications. I had been doing it for over a decade in Citadel. I could do it again here.

And by the time the talking amongst themselves had ended, I noticed myself standing taller both physically and rhetorically. I could do this. And they saw that too.

"Very well." Iroh said. "You say you have experience in just this field. Not you can prove that to us. Gather your gear. There'll be a truck waiting for you with squad blackfyre prepped in 5 minutes."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir." I said, trying my damndest to suppress my smile. And as I turned to leave, I heard behind me "Wait.". And when I turned around, Iroh had a grin on his face that was more than obvious as he said "You do need to know when to sabotage the equipment. Now don't you?"

The day of the 2nd assault. Of course. I wanted to slam my head against the wall for almost forgetting, no, for forgetting such a vital detail when I mentally recovered, saying "Of course, sir. When would that be sir?"

"The full moon of July. The morning after is when we make our play. The day we invade this city for the second, and the final time.

 **Luke**

I hadn't even noticed the shard of earth stuck in my shoulder. Must have found its way there in the battle. I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I eased the tip of my blade between the flesh and stone, knocking it out with an ease mismatched with the pain that followed, and an accompanying feeling of hollowness in my shoulder. It was only me in that tent that night. The wounds sustained by Zek and Hizo had festered on the way back and they were spending the night in the armored's medical tent along with along with a quarter of squad Iron Fire.

Boss though, had stuck around despite the arrow that had made its way into his side. I was drinking some warm broth when he took a seat at the fire across from me, warming his blade in the fire before prying it into his side to dig out that arrowhead. He hardly made a sound while doing so. He sat, heated his blade, pried it out, took a bowl of soup from the pot, and left, nodding to me in what, at least to me, seemed a mix of newfound respect and acknowledgement.

 _Don't let it get to you, Luke._ I had to tell myself. They're just a means to an end. A way to fight the Earth Kingdom. They aren't your friends.

 _But they aren't useful if they don't trust me._ I reminded myself. I'm no use a co-pilot. And Hizo's no use a gunner. I'll have to be back there now. Where I'm meant to be. At least, I better as hell be after that shitshow tonight.

At least Danev got what he wanted. He got his magic tunnel that led to the promised land. Good. The sooner that happened the better.

I looked up, and saw that same familiar person come over the hill. "And speak of the devil." I said aloud.

"Aww. You were thinking about me." Danev said. "Good things I hope."

"Quite the opposite. Kind of a mess you got us into back there."

"Yeah." He said, sitting down by the fire. "I know. That one's on me for waiting 'till the last minute."

"Well. At least it worked."

"Yeah. It worked alright."

"You still have all your gear." I remarked, chuckling. "So what? You don't use it during the ambush but now that we're back in camp you decide to get dressed up?"

"I. I didn't bring this. I just put it on."

"Going for a late-night stroll then. Or you up to some more practice. I could go for another round." I said, standing up, ready to put my offhand to use again and, perhaps, make it a bit less 'off'.

"Actually. I am going somewhere. Command's worried the tunnels are compromised. A truck's waiting for me."

"So you're going to check out if the tunnels are intact? Leave some guys to guard it?"

"No. I'm starting my mission. We're going through. I'm going to Ba Sing Se. The truck's waiting for me now. Just thought I'd say goodbye"

I was taken aback in that moment. I realized after the passage of a few seconds that my mouth had been open, agape. "You're joking." I said, confident I was calling a bluff of some sort.

"No. This is it. I'm going in.

"So the siege?"

"Begins tomorrow." He completed. "The assault in two months. This is it."

"So. It's really starting now."

"Yeah." He said, coming to my same conclusion. This was the beginning of the end. And I wasn't going to spend the next two months watching artillery.

"Then I'm going too."

"No."

"I'm not spending the next two months outside these walls counting artillery shells fired per minute. I'm going."

"No, Luke." He said, more tired than determined. "You're not in my squad. You're armored. Squad Iron Fire."

"Then transfer me."

"I don't have permission for that."

"Then get someone who does. Say you won't go unless I come along."

"I'm not doing that, Luke."

"Why not!?"

"Because you'll die. You're a good fighter, Luke, but you're still half what you were. You're improving, and maybe in two months you'll be good, but you're not ready to take on Ba Sing Se."

"Oh, but you are?"

"No, but I'm the one that's been sent. I have a job. I job I've done my entire life that you hardly had to consider in Citadel. You survived because you were smart and clever. Because your words got you what you needed to live. I didn't have that. I spent my life sneaking in and out of places to steal what I needed."

"So did I. Before that info broker shit. With Mini? Remember?"

I knew he saw the same image I now saw in my head. Of the mutilated body of my oldest friend, dangling from a sign post, legs hacked off. "And that's exactly why you're not going."

He held his arm out for me to shake. And at this point, I had come to terms with it. I knew deep down he was right. I just wanted to give it my best shot, but it was true. This was his forte. It never had been mine. All the same, I declined his hand, but not because I was petty. "I don't need to say goodbye." I said. "I'll be seeing you in two months. Then I'll be good, and we'll take on the Earth Kingdom together."

He smiled. "Deal?" he asked, extending his arm again. And I knew in that moment that naivety was something I couldn't afford anymore. So maybe this was it for him. For us. Perhaps I two months' time, one of us would be a rotting corpse. And as unhealthy as it was to thing in that way, that was the reality of it. I knew it, and he knew it, and so I extended my arm, shook it, and we hugged.

No more words were spoken. He smiled, I smiled back trying to only think of seeing him again in 2 months' time, on the other side of those damn walls, and then he was gone, and I prayed it wasn't the last time I would get to say farewell to him.

 **Long Feng**

"Absolutely not."

It had been the answer I had feared, and, unfortunately, expected.

"You're grace." I said, being careful not to reach a point of pleading or begging lest I appear weak and pathetic. "We simply do not have the resources to be generous with our dwindling supply."

It was a question I hadn't even wished to bring to The King's attention that following morning, but there was no longer any doubt where the army's loyalty lay. I had been hoping to use reason and logic to sway them to my cause. Certainly they must have agreed that the peasantry could become hostile, even dangerous in the event of a food shortage. And that food shortage was inevitable!

I continued, hoping maybe if I couldn't have the army with me, I could have him who controlled the army's loyalty. "You grace. Please do listen. The outer district is a hive of criminality and desperation. They already grow restless. Just last week an officer of the law was assaulted."

"What was their reason?"

"Hunger. They've grown desperate. And with the blockade, it has become even worse."

"Why was I not informed of this. We must divert more food from our stocks to the citizenry."

 _Idiot!_ I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I retained myself, surrounded by his military. Any defiance would be a futile effort. As the days went by, my title continued to take on an appearance of an empty honor, especially when my so-called administrative power could be vetoed at the whim of a King with no sense of the big picture. "Our stocks are near empty, your grace. Soon enough, even we will be reduced to scraps."

"If that means our people don't starve in the streets, then it will be worth it."

"Maybe for the next week, your grace, but this blockade, it is here. Starving will be a problem for everyone in 2 weeks' time. There will be protests first, assemblies, then it will grow violent. The protests will no longer be nonviolent, the police will be killed, the rioter will arm themselves and storm the palace if we do not defend ourselves as I suggest."

"You suggest forming a barrier between us and then. You would declare war on near half our population. It's unspeakable, Long Feng."

"No. It's our only choice. If we don'-"

"Enough of this!" He called out, rising from his throne, attracting the attention of all his court and even rousing Bosco, a gift I once meant to keep his court in line. Now, unfortunately, the beast frightened me and kept me in a silent submission as much as it did everyone else. He had used my own gift against me. No. Not even he was that smart. That was my own mistake. "I'll hear no more of this, Long Feng. Do what you must, but we will not alienate our own people. Call the farmers of the outer ring, see what they can do."

"The outer ring is all trenches and battlements, your grace. For the assault."

"Are the farms still there? Yes. They're feeding the soldiers."

"Then offer a pay of 10 gold pieces of month for any farmer who decides to risk their life in the outer ring to provide food for the city."

A ridiculous price. 10 gold pieces monthly? Per capita? "I. The treasury, you grace. We don't-"

"Do it, grand secretariat."

I sighed, defeated. There would be no turning him. Not today. "Yes, your grace."

And as I turned to leave, a messenger clad in army apparel rushed to where the Council of 5 was gathered in the corner of the Throne Room, to the King's right hand. And as I read their faces, I believed I knew what his message spoke of. And my theory was confirmed when in 5 seconds, the Earth itself shook. Dust fell from the ceiling, people fell, and then the shockwave came, and that roaring boom that signaled a combined, unified, first bombardment of Fire Nation artillery.

And when the room had recovered, the Earth King included, he turned to his generals, shouting above the dying roar of his pet bear, asking "Generals?! What is happening."

"That, you grace." I said, making sure I was the one to show him I was right. "Is Fire Nation artillery. The real Battle of Ba Sing Se has begun.


	39. Chapter 37: The Walls of Ba Sing Se

Two Months Later

 **Luke**

The artillery signaled the first day of the siege, the morning after Danev and his new squad, Blackfyre, had left. I remembered the boom of when, the artillery emplacements, lined for kilometers across the horizon, evenly spread for maximum effect, fired at exactly the same moment, shaking the ground beneath me, waking every single one of us soldiers in that camp, and, likely, even the city that was the intended target of those blasts.

And so, at the sound of that simultaneous _boom_ across the camp, it became apparent that the Siege of Ba Sing Se had really begun. And I knew, that no matter how it ended, it wouldn't be a repeat of last time. It was all or nothing this time around. There was no second camp somewhere ready to continue the fight should we fall, there were no transports waiting at the Serpent's lake ready to evacuate us, there was no way out of this one unless we decided to pack up and leave right now, but everyone from this camp to the core of Ba Sing Se, after 2 months of fighting, knew that wasn't going to be the case.

The artillery, however, after those initial blasts, never let up. I knew what their purpose was. It was to break the morale of the defenders as much as it was to destroy those walls. Thing about long sieges, it's hard to keep one side happy while making the other miserable. Because sitting in that camp, even closer to those siege batteries, albeit far further from the firing range, wasn't particularly a treat in its own respect. I fell asleep with the rumbling of the earth beneath me and an artillery blast somewhere every 5 seconds. They didn't keep their synchronization of the first blast, as firing crews rotated, more and more synchronization was lost to the point it seemed the Earth was never quiet. I dreamed of seeing the explosions, and the wasteland that laid just beyond those massive stone walls.

After 2 weeks of nonstop artillery, you began to forget where you were. I would leave my tent in the morning, still groggy, eyes sore and adjusting, expecting the light of the sun, but I'd step out, and there'd be no sun. I'd wonder if it was the middle of the night until I remembered it was day. Hell, I had woken up as late as noon sometimes on my days off only to see, or rather, not see the complete lack of a sky. Clouds gray with sulfur surrounded shrouded the blue sky beyond for what seemed like an eternity. The last time I had seen the sky had been 2 months ago. I forgot what shade of blue it was at this point.

I would wake up, looking at those walls, finally showing their marks of damage and weariness that spelled illusions of hope and sparked thoughts of "maybe". Whatever crews the Earth Kingdom had manning those walls were completely and utterly put on an indefinite standby as walking onto those walls or anywhere within a mile of those walls was an instant death sentence. There had only been one group of 5 so bold as to brave the rain of fire and they met their end the way it had been expected. When Zek tapped my shoulder and pointed at the silhouettes on the wall, they had been blown to even smaller black blips on the horizon before Chez could even wager on how long he had expected them to last.

Those who had been injured 2 months ago now appeared as though nothing had ever happened to them. No broken limbs, no handicaps, nothing. Well, excluding me. The arm was no longer suspended, but still in a cast. I could move more of it now without severe pain, but functionality ended at the forearm, but, in the 2 months of time that had been given to me, I had been forced to make accommodations.

I had somewhere found a balance between my expectations and those of my squad where I found the time it took to adjust well enough to my left arm as far slower than I had hoped for while they seemed to view it as a miracle, citing on friends of theirs who had lost their primary arms and never made the adjustments after years of practice, losing their military careers in single swift, and deadly, strokes.

They credited my youth, and my lack of proper training in swordsmanship in any regard, saying I hadn't come yet to favor any one arm and I would now have trouble returning to my right. I didn't want to think that to be true. While maybe I could react right with my left, it would never feel right, natural. I still felt my right arm even when I knew I didn't, feeling an itch that, even when I scratched, wouldn't go away. A phantom pain, Killstreak would call it. Killstreak, despite the colorful name, was our division medic. Zek said he'd gotten his name for having a higher kill count than any one else in the armored division.

I had never gotten a chance to ask the man in question about his thoughts regarding his name. I wondered if he'd brush it off, play along, or perhaps show anger at the apparent slight to his profession the nickname implied. I figured maybe it'd be best not to ask the question unless I found myself confined to that tent for an extended period of time.

In the last week, well, you could tell the bombardment was coming to a never-too-soon end. First the trenches were abandoned. Any ideas of a counterattack had been abandoned. If the Earth Kingdom was preparing to attack us, breaking out of the city, which was impossible given the fact the city was being completely besieged and we'd sealed off the secret tunnel behind squad Blackfyre, they would have done it already. No. That idea was out the window. The next move was ours. And it was coming.

After the trenches had been abandoned, filled with mud due to the insistent rainfall of late summer/early autumn, the tens were whittled down, the watch towers torn down ad burned for firewood, and lastly, the assault teams assembled. And last night, when the moon came up, a perfect white circle, shining through the smog of our siege against all odds, we knew the day had come.

So this morning, or, at least what I assumed was the morning, I helped Zek and Hizo tear down our tent, packing it into the back of our tank, knowing we'd just be setting up another camp on the other side of that wall, only for what I prayed would be for a much smaller timespan. And after tearing that tent down, gathering all of my possession and anything I didn't wish to lose to the natural processes of the world around me, I looked at the perfect formation of tents directly in front of me, knowing, this time around, what lay ahead on those walls. I had been through it before.

I had already had to deal with boss and his reluctance to have me in the tank. Squad Iron Fire was to join in the initial climb. We'd be near the front. Again, nothing I wasn't used to. I told him just that, but he was persistent.

But his complaints were hollow. I could see it. He could see it. I was going, and there was nothing he was going to be able to do to stop me.

I was going to fight today. I had done this all before. I had survived. But this time around, however, it wasn't about survival. I had already done that before. Today was something else, because today, we wouldn't simply survive. We would win.

Today, Ba Sing Se would see the first day of its fall.

 **Iroh**

It was a strange feeling trying to fit into my old armor again. But then again, why wouldn't it have been? The armor was made to fit a young warrior ready to protect a soldier diving headfirst into battle. Somebody like my son. Not me. Not anymore.

It was a sad realization when the I couldn't fit the straps of the chest plate around my belly. _Had it really grown so much?_ I wanted to laugh, but the reality of my surroundings prevented me. I had seen war before. I had survived and thrived. The battle of the burning falls, the battle of the frozen hills, the ambush of the shaking plains. Battles that had all earned their names. Battles where I, and all of my men, had earned their victory.

Today was something else entirely though. Today was the culmination of everything my career had been leading to. The one thing that would fill the void left by all other military engagements I had partaken in. The single event that would determine whether this conflict would continue, and millions more lives would be lost, or if it would come to one final climatic end.

I, as well as, or at least I hoped, everyone in this camp was looking forward to experiencing the latter option.

But there was a concern there that would never be alleviated. A concern born from the idea of fighting alongside all I really had left in this world. My only son. All that was left of my wife. And he would be at the forefront of the battle today. His life would be in more jeopardy than anyone else's.

If, however, I had not known who my son was, I might have gone so far as to pull him off the lines, but I knew who the boy I had raised was. He was a master firebender. He was a brilliant strategist. And he was a leader that inspired respect and loyalty. I knew, that by today's end, he would have the pleasure of walking those walls, and seeing what his army looked like from the top of the world.

And while I may have been the father of probably the most capable leader our nation had to offer, I was still just that, a father. And I was worried for my boy.

"Father." His voice said as he walked into the command pavilion, one of the last tents still standing. In 5 minutes time, it would be down, packed in the back of some truck, and I'd be at the front of a formation of a hundred of the Crimson's best firebenders while Lu Ten would be in the seat of a tank, leading thousands of others, both of us ready to face imminent death.

But right now, I put that aside to take one look at him, my son. He had shaved, I saw, his side burns perfectly cut, not shrouded by the helmet he held under his left arm. He, contrary to his father, was the perfect image of a soldier in his prime, fitting perfectly in his officer's armor, a stunning image any Fire Day festival connoisseur would want to see leading the military parade.

I forced back the emotion coming to my eyes and forced myself to see him now in the eyes of a General looking at his right-hand man. "Lieutenant General." I replied.

He knew it was no show of anger towards him, but an all-too-common display from me to not allow my emotion to get the better of me. He understood. That's what mattered.

"The rest of the camp has been disassembled and is being loaded into the vehicles. The firebenders are in formation awaiting your command. The infantry is in reserve and the armored is fully equipped for the climb."

"You've given the time tables to the gunners?"

"Yes sir. The moment we begin our climb, the artillery will stop. The Earth benders won't have enough time to spring a trap. If they do, we'll be ready. The tanks have been equipped with extra hooks, retrofitted with more impact-absorbent armor, and treads lined with scaling hooks. We're ready."

"Then I imagine I better get going. You get to your armored. I'll be there shortly."

"Yes sir."

"And Lu Ten?"

He paused, understanding. "Yes, father?"

"Be safe."

And he left, leaving me alone to figure out how exactly to fit into my armor.

 **Danev**

We had the charts. We knew what day the day was, in case we wouldn't be able to see the moon. But that night it had shone so bright that it illuminated the city of Ba Sing Se even below the shroud of the soot-laden clouds that were the consequences of this war. One of many.

I and my squad had been in Ba Sing Se for 2 months. We had done anything and everything to remain hidden and complete our mission. Every day was different. On the first day, we had intercepted a group of Earth Kingdom guards near the wall, before that entire area had become completely in traversable due to artillery. There had been 5 of them. We killed them, taking their identification and uniforms. There were 10 of us, however. And from that day, we had split into two units as per my orders. One unit would act undercover, the one I led, securing Earth Kingdom supplies, while the other would dare the walls amidst the artillery strikes to find weak points in the wall.

A month had passed. We had secured our equipment, hiding it away in an abandoned farmhouse. 7 kilotons of blasting jelly. Our other half never made it back to us, presumed killed by our own artillery. And then, after losing 5, reduced to 5 ourselves, we were reduced to doing their jobs ourselves. We spent the next 3 weeks braving the craters near the wall, running from cover to cover until we made it to the wall, until we found the perfect spot weakened enough by or artillery, sizeable crack running down the height of the wall, converging at one point at the base of the wall.

We spent the next one and a half weeks rolling barrels of blasting jelly towards the wall from cover to cover, mere inches between us and barrels of immediate painless death. Not the worse way to go. In fact, I, in some sick way, envied the 5 killed on the walls. I doubted my own death would be so easy. In retrospect, I wouldn't mind being killed by my own artillery. One second, I'd be alive and the next I wouldn't. How bad is that? But I couldn't think like that. I had a job to do. I was bringing down this city.

And somehow, we had only suffered 2 more casualties, 2 kilotons of blasting jelly, and we were ready.

Then that full moon had came, and we were back in the Earth Kingdom artillery camp, dressed as their own, only 3 of us now, waiting for our patrol shift to begin. Then the time came. The time we were told to send the signal. The signal, of course, would be the demolition of 2 months of work in a single goal. A blast large enough to see beyond the wall. All it would take was one spark.

And so when it was our patrol, with 2 of my remaining men keeping watch, I manned the trebuchet we had snuck out of the camp in the night behind a hill where it wouldn't be seen, loaded it with the final barrel of blasting jelly, lit it, and counted.

We had, of course, already done the math. We knew exactly what angles to set the trebuchet at, how long to wait until firing, but there was always that uncertainty. We could have done a million things wrong. The stash could have been found, we could have done the equations wrong, anything, but that was just how it was. And the sooner we put that out of our heads, the sooner we could do our jobs.

I got the thumbs up saying the barrel was lit and counted. 1….2…., every second longer than the last. 3…4…., and I fired.

The trebuchet shook underneath me, and I worried the shaking would throw the barrel our of its proper trajectory. The bomb flew into the morning fog and disappeared. If we saw, or heard nothing, we would have failed, but if we saw a burst of light brighter than the sun and heard a boom of a shockwave louder than a collision between this earth and a falling meteor, well, then we'd know we'd have done our jobs.

So we waited. We Saw and heard nothing for what felt like an uncertainty, but we waited, knowing our perception of the seconds was stretching them to hours. So we waited. And then, it became day.

I was on the ground, and when I picked myself up, hearing nothing but the ringing in my ears and seeing a plume of smoke and fire that put the Fire Nation itself to shame, I knew, that I had done my part.

The Battle of Ba Sing Se was about to begin.

 **Luke**

It began in the blink of an eye. One second, I was leaning back in my seat, watching the artillery shells flying against the gray sky, behind them streaking streams of fire and smoke, all disappearing behind the walls, clearing the grounds for us.

And then, we heard the explosion. Probably the loudest one I'd ever heard. One louder than the combined blast of our entire army's artillery. And when I, as well as our entire army looked up at the origin of the noise, we were greeted with the same old wall, but something different about it. From top to bottom, cracks, no, craters, were forming. Large enough for men to fit through.

Danev had done his part. And that meant one thing for us. It was time to do ours.

Then the horn sounded. Right on cue, and we shot into motion.

Thousands of tanks storming across the plains between where our camp once stood and where their city, for the moment, stood proudly. But that was about to come to a quick and decisive end. Our tanks sped along the plains, artillery still going off behind us as we raced to reach the wall before our shells in what I guess could be considered a friendly competition of sorts. Of course, even our tanks couldn't outrun the speed of artillery mortars and shells.

However, only 2 blasts reached the walls before our time came, we reached the base of the wall, and the artillery stopped.

There was then a moment I'd never thought I could have appreciated so much. Total silence. The entire armored division had come to a stop. The first line of tanks had their hooks aimed up towards the top of the walls, but there were 10 seconds of silence between the last blast of artillery and the sounds of the pressurized gas propelling the grappling hooks over 300 feet into the air to grapple onto the great walls of Ba Sing Se.

And like that, silence abandoned, the war had resumed, no longer on pause. It didn't concern me. I had done this before. Just had to scale this damn wall one last time, and we could bring it down. For good.

And soon enough, we joined those situated in front of us, and now found ourselves completely vertical.

I could already notice the improvements that had been made to the tanks. The treads had been laden with small climbing hooks that had a clear effect on stability. The hooks were the same as they had been, but the idea of a third one in reserve offered some small comfort.

The first 100 feet passed. Just like that, but we all knew it was a matter of time before the fighting began. We had the luxury of being right at the walls when the artillery stopped as well as a degree of surprise. The explosion would indeed have alerted the Earth Kingdom, but they had no way to believe the attack was coming today. It wouldn't have been nearly impossible to make it to the walls and up them before they were even ready to repel our attack.

At least, that's what we thought.

I saw the blast of fire ahead of me as it collided with a disk of solid earth, exploding it mid air creating a cloud of dust obscuring the vision of the tank units to our right. Just what the benders had wanted and were now doing to us. The disks came down and I wanted to yell "Don't fire." But found the words catching in my throat.

It was then I remembered that I wasn't in the 5th Corps anymore. I was in the 5th army. And Lu Ten was leading our charge.

I saw the tanks ahead of me close their hatches and I followed suit. The disks fell, unmolested this time around. Now this may be taken as an act of cowardice, but it was nothing along those lines. It was a simple matter of not playing into the game of the enemy. And when besieging a city as fortified as this one, the last thing you want to do is go where or do what the defenders want you to do.

And so, hatches closed and sealed tight, we became a moving wall of impenetrable steel. Except, this wall was fighting back.

I joined in contributing to the wave of bolts and the occasional blasts of fire coming out of the gunnery turrets of the tanks as we made our way up the walls, trying our damndest to scatter the defenders at the top as much as we could.

We hadn't expected the opposition, but I'd be damned if we hadn't been ready for it.

I didn't focus on hitting anyone in particular. I chose no targets. I chose a general area, where I could see where the hooks of my line of tanks had based themselves into the ground. I fired in that area, daring anyone to come near enough and make an attempt to dislodge our hooks.

And soon enough, devoid of incident save 1 or 2 tanks that were downed in the line to my right, we had reached 200 feet. The fighting intensified. The density of Earth kingdom defenders atop had increased as Earth Benders formed walls of earth in front of them, knocking them over onto our tanks, but we held steady, and never stopped firing.

It was then that I finally got the opportunity to see our newest weapons put to the test. Certain tanks in our armored division were armed with ballistae in place of standard turrets, armed with large scorpion bolts.

And now, at an altitude of 220 feet, I saw them put into action as every single line of tanks, in night perfect unison fired scorpion bolts near double the height of a human body. But there was something about these bolts, something near the bolt-heads that made me think of-oh. Of course.

The bolts hit the walls of earth that had been put up, and no later did they explode in brilliant blasts of fire and smoke, sending debris and limbs off of the walls, clanging atop our vehicles.

250 feet. And they were becoming desperate. And seeing an opportunity to take us all out in one go, the Benders on the wall seemed to have come to a unanimous agreement that would undoubtedly cost their lives, but ours as well.

And the wall began to shake, and crack near the top. They were taking out the very floor beneath their feet in a last-ditch effort to remove our grappling hooks, sending all our tanks down to a rocky mass grave below. And little by little, the hooks began to come loose as tanks plummeted below the steel walls, shooting reserves, but all the same taken out of the fight.

Then more fell. Then more. Then the tank next to us. And it seemed over until the wall shook, and they fell. I had to spin my turret towards the ground for a split second to see what the source had been. Of course.

Iroh and his battalion of firebenders were gathered at the weak spot in the wall, firing combined blasts of fire. The wall continued to shake, but we continued.

And soon enough, 300 feet were reached. The first line went over just as the Earth Benders recovered and attempted to complete their suicide mission to no avail.

The next line was over the wall, then the next, then us. We were atop the wall, and the fighting had just begun. There was enough room atop that wall for 6 tanks to sit next to each other, side to side. And so, we fought. And at that point, they stood no chance.

We were on top of the wall, and we weren't done. Not by a long shot. I unsealed and raised the hatch above me for a chance at greater visibility, knowing what I could do up top combined with Zek's driving as he went about his own course, and I fought. I fired blast after blast, making way for the demolition tanks to get up the wall from the rear of the formation. And so, I fought, but, at that point, it was no fight. It was man against machine. And I was the machine. I had killed 13 soldiers, 4 of them earth benders, non-discriminately as some fought, and some ran, refusing to differentiate by the time the demolition tanks had come up and were moving towards the weak spot in the wall, dropping payloads of explosive out of the rear of their tanks. I heard the horn telling us to make way as our tanks scrambled across the wall, as far from the weak spot as possible, with us at the practical back of the formation, the closest ones to the soon to be hole in the wall. Or at least, as we all hoped.

The demolition tanks depleted their payloads, picked up the pace in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the demolition zone where some more of our tanks were situated and had cleared the defenders.

And that was the second pause of the battle today. No explosions. No firebending. One moment of preparation for a combined assault. All that was needed was the signal from the command vessel, Lu Ten's tank.

And we heard it, and, without a doubt, saw it as the red flare made its way into the sky from Lu Ten's tank.

And then it happened. And in that moment, I knew it was over. Not just the battle. The war. It had to be. I smiled, and just sat still as I watched the show.

 **Iroh**

That flare meant one thing to the firebenders gathered behind me. But to me, it had one meaning that stood out more than all else. My son was alive.

And so, I channeled my emotion. Not rage, nor anger, nor sorrow, but joy. Fire is unlike the other elements. Fire is alive. It feeds off of emotion. Those of its bender. Those of its victim. In recent years, the common idea regarding firebending was to fuel it with hatred more than all else. This false view of the most living element had created a military doctrine vile enough to result in the extermination of an entire race under Sozin.

I, however, knew better than him, as egotistic as it sounded. He could have his truth of fire as much as he wanted. It wouldn't do him any good anymore. Me, however, I guess you could say I was lucky. Because when I thought of my son, and the fact that I would get to see him on the other side of this wall in a matter of minutes, I channeled my emotions and I bent.

And the world in front of me became fire. Fire is alive. Fire has a purpose: to spread. And now, it had that chance, to open up a new world beyond these walls. And so it did. The hole was visible for only a matter of seconds before the collapse began.

I couldn't believe it in that moment. The one thing I had been looking forward to in the last year and a half, coming to me all at once. Coming to us.

The stone, weakened, lacking foundation, initiated its collapse. And in a domino motion, spread throughout a large stretch of the wall, forming a downward triangular shape in a wall that came collapsing down all at once. But we stood our ground. And in seconds. The world ahead of us was engulfed in dust.

The men behind me hesitated, but I had no intention on doing the same. Whatever lay beyond, I was ready for.

And so I walked, as the dust cleared, and I saw the wall to my left and right. I walked up the mounds of dirt and debris as last bits and pieces came falling down to my sides, but I wouldn't slow down.

And I saw then that my men had joined me behind me. I'm sure each and every one of them was just as eager as I to step to the other side. And soon enough, we had, and we were through.

And in once swift motion, the dust surrounding us, disappeared, and a battalion of Earth Kingdom soldiers appeared on the other side, the one thing remaining between us and the Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se.

And at that moment, I was fortunate enough to witness the looks on their faces, and the General in front of them, transition from resilience to absolute hopelessness as the Crimson Infantry, thousands of men, came into view behind me. Right past the wall.

So we stood, facing each other, in silence. I stood ready. My firebenders stood ready. And the infantry stood ready. We had brought down the walls of Ba Sing Se. A far as we were concerned, today, anything was possible.

And they saw it too. Our opponents. And they made their decision. Those holding spears, dropped them. Those holding bows, dropped them. Those holding Earth, dropped it. And the General in front of them, rightfully so, was the last to lay down his arms, releasing the tiny shards of Earth he had prepared to fire at us in front of him.

He had the opportunity to kill the leader of this siege right in front of him, but he, I could tell, wasn't the type of man I was accustomed to in my own nation. He was a man of honor. I recognized him too.

"General Hondu" I said.

"General Iroh." He responded.

"You defeated us and the 5th Corps in our last assault. You were a worthy foe, but we have won today. Surrender yourself and your men and you will be treated fairly and returned to your families once this war is done."

General Hondu closed his eyes and reached into his belt, pulling out a sheathed dagger in a motion that required me to raise a hand to calm the two firebenders to my side.

Hondu kneeled and unsheathed the blade, presenting it to me, as his battalion behind him surrendered, kneeling as well.

I accepted the blade from him as he remained kneeled, and I read the inscription.

"Never give up without a fight." I could see now what it meant for this man to surrender himself, abandoning his pride and record to save his men. A true man of honor.

"Captain." I said, turning to the my firebending Captain, Zee'kran, at my side. "Gather the prisoners and find somewhere hospitable to keep them. Ensure they are fed and have any and all of their injuries treated."

"Yes sir. Is the battle over, sir?"

"Yes, captain. The battle is over."

And indeed it was. We had taken the walls of Ba Sing Se.

But this war, was far from over.


	40. Chapter 38: No Man's Land

**Iroh**

 _To my Beloved Family back home,_

" _Allow me the honor to be the first to inform you and our Nation that the outer walls of Ba Sing Se have fallen. They were unprepared for the sheer willpower of our Nation's finest soldiers._

 _We improved upon our previous failures. We amended the errors we made before. And more than anything else, we were truly dedicated in our efforts this time._

 _My son Lu Ten led an attack to distract the attention of the main Earth Kingdom force while I led my finest Benders and our footmen to tear down the walls of Ba Sing Se._

 _If the city is as magnificent as its wall, Ba Sing Se must be something to behold. I hope you all may see it someday. If we don't burn it to the ground first."_

I added that last bit, chuckling to myself, hoping Zuko and Azula would be around to read it alongside their parents. It had been 3 years since I had seen either of them. I hoped I could dial in on their senses of humor.

" _Until then, enjoy these gifts."_

I looked at the parcel I had wrapped, knowing what was inside, hoping they would be appreciated by both my niece and nephew.

" _For Zuko, a pearl dagger from the General who surrendered when we broke through the outer wall. Note the inscription and the superior craftsmanship._

 _And for Azula, a new friend. She wears the latest fashion for Earth Kingdom girls."_

Zuko had been 9 and Azula had been 7 last I saw them. They would now be 12 and 10 respectively. Were they even the same children I knew. I had to assume so. How much could a child change in 3 years. But then again, with a father such as my brother, who knows what had been done to them. I shivered at the thought, adding a final line that came to the top of my head.

 _I look forward to seeing you all soon and I hope you are well. When I return, and the war is over, we will finally be able to live as the family we are._

 _Until then, you cousin Lu Ten and I wish you well._

 _Your Loving Uncle,_

 _Iroh_

I folded the parchment and handed it to the courier seated in my command pavilion, now located practically directly beyond the ruins of the wall, near the rear of the camp.

The Earth sloped downward from my point, providing it a good overlook of the new front. And what a front it was.

2 months of artillery had done their work. The world in front of us, well, it was hard to identify it as a landscape from our planet.

The earth was black. No grass was growing for miles from the base of the outer wall to the horizon. We could see the inner walls from our position. A fraction of their outer counterparts, but a challenge all the same in their own respect, but one I knew we were ready to face. We had to be.

The earth was black, full of mud and muck. Only 1 tree stood where I could only imagine from the toppled wood and charred trunks, for every hundred. Craters lined the ground, carrying in width, and depth, many of them having become pools of water from the rainfall.

I had heard the reports form my men as they dug their trenches and established a new camp. The earth was completely wet, solid in no regard. I had had to send men to cut down trees outside the walls and haul the lumber back to our camp to construct pallets and support beams to keep our trenches standing and stopping the mud from devouring our men in the middle of the night.

The front was near half a mile away from our camp, but that half a mile made all the difference. It was a half a mile we had managed to just barely grasp after we had taken the wall, allocating all our infantry to storm the area and fortify. Then the enemy artillery had begun. 100 men were killed, 500 were injured.

The trenches were then dug right on the outskirts of their firing range, and their trenches were on the outskirts of our own.

And in 3 days, the battle of Ba Sing Se had gone from a massive all-day siege, to a horrific case of trench warfare.

I, however, was no stranger to this form of combat. I had seen it before, and I was ready for it. Trenches had been dug, barbed wire had been lined around them to slow any of their charges. Mines had been placed in no man's land in the middle of the night, each one of them accounted for and plotted on our maps.

Sanitation had been established, I had made a delivery request from Citadel, and in the event they failed, which they would, the nearest 50 occupied Fire Nation cities and towns, for over a thousand pairs of socks, clean uniforms, and boots.

Yes. I was ready for it. And I still had a secret weapon I had up my sleeve. One that would be useful once more, but I had to keep a lookout for at all times. That weapon was a squad of Fire Nation soldiers, behind enemy lines. The selfsame ones that had helped blow the hole in Ba Sing Se's walls. And right now, they were our best hope to get the move on.

 **Danev**

It worked. It had been 3 days and I still couldn't believe it worked. We lost 5 of our guys in the first month and we still managed to make it work. That in itself was a miracle.

But that was 3 days ago, and despite the fact that my ears were still ringing, and my vision still blurred, I couldn't let it distract me. I still had a hell of a lot of work left to do.

So now, me, Zonda, and Za'ik, were huddled in what once was an Earth Kingdom farmhouse, surrounding a rough map of the Earth Kingdom trenches I had drawn.

"Nice map."

"Thanks."

And that made the last 3 days' worth it.

"Now let's get to work." I said. "We're here." I said, pointing to the map where I had drawn a black house to represent where we were. "Our guys are here. These are their trenches, that's the wall, and that's the camp. Last I saw, they had set up towers and barbed wire, so they're well defended, but that defense won't mean shit if the Earth Kingdom uses their artillery on us."

"Right." Interceded Za'ik. "And that artillery they're using is Fire Nation made. Shit they stole from the 5th and the idiots running it. No offense, Danev."

"None taken. I'm just glad I jumped ship before they could get me, and 5,000 other dudes killed in one go."

"True that." Said Zonda.

"Anyway." Continued Za'ik. "That's they're trench line over here, which means their artillery is at least half a mile behind their trench lines, safely out of way of our artillery."

Zonda continued for Za'ik. "And that artillery is going to made any kind of charge for our boys nigh suicidal."

"So we take out the artillery." I finished.

"And now the question of how. Any ideas, boss?"

 _Boss._ I liked that. Took them 2 months and one blown up wall to get them to call me that, but hey, better late than never. "Well. We used all our blasting jelly on the wall. Their artillery is low on ammo thanks to us, but they managed to get one last supply convoy through before the rioting got really bad."

"Shit." Said Za'ik. "Maybe we should just wait. If the rioting's as bad as I overheard some of the soldiers saying, this city is set to self-destruct any day now."

"I wouldn't count on that." Said Zonda. "The secret police, the Dai Li, they've been around since Kyoshi and since that time, the city has faced a single successful peasant uprising. Thousands have tried. Tens of thousands have died. The Dai Li doesn't like loose ends."

"Well shit. That's a whole 'nother thing to worry about when we get through the inner wall. And I thought we were out of the frying pan."

"And into the fire." I finished.

"What?"

"That's how the saying goes. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire.'"

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"I swear it's not."

"It really is." Zonda said.

"Well you're from the colonies. Why would we say something so derogatory about Fire in the Fire Nation?"

"Fair point." I added.

"Anyway." Zonda said, bringing us back on track. "About this mission to destroy their artillery, what was your plan?"

"Yeah." I said. "Right. I was thinking about that and I may have an idea. The other day, I saw the Earth Kingdom set up a new line of artillery, here. Perpendicular to our trenches, just out of range of our own guns, but not out of range of Earth Kingdom guns."

"So you want to hijack the guns at that new camp and use them on the main artillery?"

"Better. I want to fake orders between the two of them. Get the gunnery general's seals from both camps, steal some messenger pigeons, and make it look like the Fire Nation is attacking the other position and say that there's no time and artillery has to be fired there immediately. We can set some fires, blow some barrels up, start a panic to make it seem real from a distance. Then low and behold, the Earth Kingdom kills themselves for us."

And they looked at each other, and back at me.

"You have a plan?" asked Zonda

"Well. No, but that's why we're here, isn't it? But first, we need to get somebody back to Crimson to give them the plan."

 **Luke**

Nobody in armored, or hell, the entire Crimson Army would stop talking about that wall falling. And hell, who could blame them? Because, damn was it something to see.

From the top of the wall, it felt as though you were trapped in the middle of the world's largest Earthquake. Everything around you shaking. Cracks opening in the floor. Watchtowers crumbling all around you. Everyone backing up from that one growing crack you know will soon swallow the world.

And eventually, the world underneath us opened, taking in whatever it could, and like that, a chunk our world, that damn wall, fell into oblivion. And then it was over. We won.

Now, though, only a few days later, maybe 3, hell, I couldn't remember, the story of the wall falling felt like just that, a story. Something we told ourselves to feel good and remind each other that we could win, but now, we were trapped in trenches going through the Earth, being bombarded by artillery, and I found myself doubting if all of our built-up momentum, advanced by 2 months of waiting, had come to a sudden end.

I wanted to believe that wasn't the case but living in a current state where I couldn't raise my head too high for fear of having it blow off, well, it fostered that kind of belief in me.

The armored had been told to leave our vehicles behind back at camp, far out of artillery range, which I guess was understandable, but not exactly pleasant being that far from our domain. I could see they felt the same. 'They' as in the rest of my squad. And despite my best efforts to distance myself from them, well, I was part of them. For better or worse.

"Luke?" called Boss from behind me, snapping me back to reality.

"Yeah?"

"What do you see?"

"What?" I then remembered I had been looking through a periscope attached to the side of the trench wall. I had somehow been completely lost in thought I had forgotten where I even was to some extent. "Oh. Right.

I looked ahead. It was midday. The haze of the artillery hadn't faded in the slightest. It remained completely impossible to see the sky, but at the very least, the Earth ahead was visible. Barely. Raava forbid the nights when you couldn't see the man 5 feet in front of you. All the same, I moved the periscope right to left, scanning their trench line, or what little was visible of it. I relayed my findings.

"As far as I can see, a mile and a half of trench lines, forming a box at the edges to prevent ambushes from the sides. They got barbed wire surrounding the trench lines. At least 3 layers. Tanks should go over it nicely, but judging by the fires in no man's land, I'd say their artillery would tear us to shreds in a matter of seconds."

"How effective would an infantry charge be?"

"Not much more. Armored would be preferable. They have no anti-tank artillery rounds. At least that we know of, but their trebuchets and catapults would tear our ground guys to shreds."

"Fuck. I miss my tank."

"Same here, Boss. Same here."

"Hey. Luke?"

"Yeah, man?"

"Just wanted to say sorry for how I greeted you when you first joined up with us."

 _Oh shit. Here we go. The talk. "_ Yeah, man. Don't worry about it."

"It's just that, when we attacked the wall the first time around. The time that failed. I lost my gunner."

"Oh."

"Anyway, my gunner. He was enthusiastic. Really. Young too. Maybe 15. When we were going up the wall, he said he could almost see the top through the slit in his tank view. Anyway, we were at the vanguard, and the little shit got so excited that he opened his hatch, saying 'He wanted to be the first Firebender to see over the wall."

"He was a firebender?"

"Yeah. Good too. Not great, but good. He saved my ass on many an occasion. Anyway, he opened his hatch to get a look. And not a second later was his head taken clean off by an Earth Bender disk. I lost my gunner that day, and not a few weeks later, you come, another young bastard, all set to replace him, and I just saw the same thing happening to you."

"I won't make the same mistake."

"And I see that now. You're younger than he was, but I can tell you've been through more. A lot more. You know about survival. You know how to stay alive when the odds are turned against you. And in our line of work, survival is tough, but you need to understand, that our squad, that's what we're about. Survival. Not just of ourselves, but of each other. And you're one of us now."

"Thanks."

"I'm just asking you to keep your crew safe. Your actions will be responsible for whether they live or die out there. I'm just hoping you know what that means."

I thought back to Gan and Gi Gu at that moment. Gi Gu's sudden silence when he was killed and Gan's last yell before our tank went crashing down, killed because I thought I might at least be able to save myself.

"I've already failed one crew. I don't plan on doing it again."

"Good. Then here's your orders."

I took my eyes away from the periscope to see what he was holding in his hands, a small paper, with a map attached.

I took it, and read what was in front of me

"Patrol routes?" I looked to Boss. When? _Finally. A chance to get back out there._

"Tonight. With Zek. Looks like Iroh doesn't plan on sticking around here any longer than he has to. He's looking for ways to get to their trenches quietly."

"You have a map of our mine placements here and a list of what exactly you're looking for. Take notes and give them to me when you get back. Now you may want to get some sleep now. It's going to be a long night."

"Yes, sir."

He turned to leave.

"And sir?" I asked.

"Yes, Luke?"

"Thank you."

"Your welcome. Just be safe."

And with that, he left. I barely slept that night. I was just ready to get back out there.

 **Long Feng**

And of course, I had been right. Again.

The soldier entered the war council chamber and made an honest attempt to whisper his news, but over the sound of artillery outside the city and the rioting within it, it was near impossible for his success in doing so, bringing him to the point of just shouting his news to be heard by the man a foot inf front of him.

"General How! The rioters have broken through the wall to the middle district."

How slammed a hand on the table, suppressing a need to break it in half with his abilities and curse his misfortune. "How are our barricades holding up?"

"Holding, sir! But the rioters, they're attacking police and soldiers! Our men are scared. Do we have permission to suppress them with all due force, sir!?"

The General's resolve weakened here. He had his orders from the Earth King, and his foolish loyalty to the poor excuse of a man sitting on that throne would doom this city. He knew that, the general, but there was nothing in this world that would render him a disloyal servant of his King. The poor man would have to realize someday that loyalty to one's Nation is more important than their loyalty to their King.

"No. We have orders. Do not kill the protestors. Suppress them however you can, but we won't kill any of them."

I shook my head. I had no fear of doing it here. The General already knew where my opinions lay. There was no need to suppress it here. In all honesty, I pitied the soldiers out there. They were being attacked, and some being killed, without any means of protecting themselves. At least not from their commanders.

The soldier shook his head, stuttering as he received the news, saying "Y-yes, sir."

He left, and How's resolve seemed to shatter right there. "Fire Nation through the outer wall, rioters and revolutionaries outside our palace. Damn it!"

"You should have listened to me."

"What you proposed was treason. Against the will of our King."

"You didn't have to tell him of what I suggested. Now, the city is under attack from 2 fronts. There's no food for us or them save whatever rats our cooks manage to find in the sewers, and the Earth Kingdom is set to fall."

"We can hold out. Our army is prepared for situations like this."

"Maybe attacks from the outside, which, may I add, you failed in repelling."

" **We. We** failed in repelling. I remember you having just as much to do with the defense plan as I did."

"Maybe so, but it was your reluctance to use my methods that lost the day."

"There are rules of war, Long Feng. Rules your plans not only would have broken but burned to the ground. There is honor in war. What you suggested was beyond intolerable."

"And now we will all die for your, 'honor'."

I had nothing more to say. I took my leave, abandoning the chamber of the council of 5 which was now whittled down to 4 and made my stroll through the palace grounds. The King's court lived in fear now, knowing that they not only had a hostile army at their doorstep, but riled up peasant who would without a doubt, have a field day in this palace. They were no doubt already looting whatever parts of the middle district they could get their hands on.

I knew how things like this went. It was all over Earth Kingdom history, particularly in this city, but in this city, there had always been one thing to stop these kinds of events before they could even happen. That was the Dai Li.

And their commander, Kaizar, now stood in the lobby of my office, waiting for me.

"Captain, I said greeting him."

"I wished to see you in your office, but your secretary wasn't here."

"Yes. She's gone at the moment." Joo Dee had been gone for around the last month, her pregnancy having gotten worse due to a lack of food flowing in the city. I had done what I could have to have gotten some more food diverted to her, but there was simply too little going around.At least now, with the lower district rioting, there was a whole portion of the population we didn't have to feed. Kuei had gone so far as to order us to send food to them, despite the fact they had already turned violent. When the soldiers delivering food had been killed and looted, and from certain reports I've heard, consumed as well, I took my authority in hand to stop these deliveries. If we couldn't kill them, we'd have to starve them as best as we could. "What's your report, Captain?"

"We have received word from our operatives."

"And?"

"They were successful. We managed to track down the main instigators of the riots and they've been, eliminated."

"Good. The riots may lose some momentum, but we're far from done with them. They'll become less organized. With any luck, they'll turn on each other, but that doesn't remove the fact they broke through the wall to the middle district."

I walked to my desk and took a seat, the papers not at all organized, scattered on my desk due to the lack of presence of a certain secretary.

I continued. "The soldiers are having a hard-enough time keeping the rioters from taking over the entire district, and we cannot afford to evacuate the civilians to the inner district. We'll just have to hope that our soldiers can keep them at bay long enough."

"Is there anything the Dai Li can do to assist you further?"

"What is the status of Lake Laogai?"

"Renovated sir. As I told you, the first test has been a success, but sir, the city is far too chaotic to begin the project."

"Of course. Which is why I need the Dai Li to continue to de-escalate the rioting as much as possible. Do your operatives report anybody else taking the reins of the rioting?"

"One, sir? His name is Hoth."

"Hoth what?"

"Don't know, sir. All we know is he's currently in charge."

"Does the Dai Li have any reports on him?"

"No, sir. He has no previous criminal activity that would have him in our books and his birth was undocumented, but e's been having difficulty rallying the rioters. Most are just on their own, forming disorganized gangs of looters, rapers, and murderers, storming the inner district. A big portion though is sticking to peaceful protests, but that doesn't mean much, sir, when they're walking over the bodies made by their more violent brethren."

"Then they're enemies all the same. There's little they can do to stop the violence and killing them would only make us appear a far worse enemy they'd be even more eager to slaughter."

 _We can't beat them on the field. We'll just have to starve them as best we can._

"Sir?" he asked, snapping me back to reality.

"I'm afraid the time has come to resort to scorched earth tactics. I need your agents to go to the middle district. Burn all food depots and restaurants with stocks you can find. The protestors will be blamed, and they'll be deprived of a food source. Our soldiers will be forced to retreat to the upper district which is far more defendable, and from there, we can hold, and watch the enemy starve themselves and turn on each other. We can rebuild afterwards, but now, this is are only option."

I saw the hesitation on his face, burning his own city. It was a hard-enough decision for me to make, but it had to be done. "Are you sure, sir?"

"I'm sure, captain. See it done."

"Yes, sir."

And with that, he left, and I had done what was needed to make sure Ba Sing Se would survive. Despite what it had cost.

 **Danev**

It was night now, but the day had only begun. And we were down to 2. I had sent Za'ik to the Fire Nation lines to give them our plan of attack. They'd have to be ready. The minute the Earth Kingdom's artillery turned on each other, we would need our tanks storming over their trenches, securing as much ground as possible

Zonda and I had split up. Zonda would go to the outskirt artillery camp, grab the commander's seal and a messenger pigeon and forge a message to the camp I was infiltrating, where I was set to do the same, but send the false orders to his camp. I had set the time for us to send the pigeons at exactly midnight.

Hopefully, even, if only one of us succeeded, receiving artillery fire, the other camp would return fire, and we'd still be able to get done what needed to be done.

I was wearing my Earth Kingdom uniform now. I was past their trenches and in the belly of the beast. Luckily for me, most of the personnel there was either artillery gunners or guards who weren't fit enough to be on the front lines.

Getting past them was the easy part. Then was the Commander's tent. I had no idea who was leading Earth Kingdom forces out here, but it shouldn't matter. I just needed his seal.

I checked the time on my pocket watch. 11:37. I had time. That was one thing I had come to appreciate about the Fire Nation over any other nation. A proper way of keeping track of time. I had no idea what means the Earth Kingdom used, but the Fire Nation, I knew for sure, did it, and did it right.

I moved over within earshot of the command tent, guarded by two far more competent looking Earth Kingdom guards, and I made myself looking busy, arranging spears, swords, and shields on a weapons rack that I carried a small way closer to the command tent to be closer within earshot.

So I stood there, rearranging weapons that were already perfectly arranged, undoing its work in a style that honestly made me feel quite guilty, as I listened to whatever I could, not knowing exactly what that was, but 5 minutes later, I got my answer, just as they were leaving the tent.

"General How tells us the middle district's soldiers are on the retreat. Fires are being started by protestors and we have orders to prepare a retreat to the wall if necessary and reroute are troops to the defense of the inner district."

"That's not possible. Go into my tent and send him a letter saying I cannot leave. I have a plan to destroy the Fire Nation lines and I will not abandon the Earth Kingdom citizens living in the outer district."

"Yes sir. Where are you going?"

"To take a piss. Now leave me alone."

"Yes sir."

The squire entered his master's tent and left around 2 minutes later with a parchment in hand. I tracked the direction he was going in a round the rookery for the messenger pigeons. Perfect.

I walked casually to the other side of the camp, behind it and out of view of its guards. I attempted to lift the bottom of the tent, but it was strongly secured to the ground. _Fine._ I took out my knife and began cutting a hole at the bottom of it, big enough for me to crawl through when I heard behind me "What are you doing, private?'

 _Fuck._ "Oh. I'm-. I saw a big scorpion fly on the side of the tent and I'm trying to kill it."

"With a dagger?"

"I-uh." I threw the knife at him, merely hoping to surprise him, but to my surprise, in my first ever attempt to throw a knife, much more with the aim of hitting and killing someone, it struck gold straight between his eyes, sending him to the ground without a sound other than that of his body hitting the ground.

And then, in the span of 1 minute, I secured my knife, I finished my hole in the tent, crawled through, found the seal freshly used on the desk, grabbed it, came out, secured the body, dragged it to the weapons rack to an upturned spear, and positioned his body with his hear coming in direct contact with a spear about his height to make it look like he'd tripped and fallen on it.

They'd believe that, right?

I hurried back into the tent, remembering my last job, going through the crawl hole, grabbing the nearest piece of parchment, setting it on the desk, scribbling as fast as possible:

" _Camp under attack from Fire Nation. We are overwhelmed. Fire on our coordinates ASAP. Friendly casualties acceptable."_

I sealed it, making sure it looked as realistic as possible of the General of a camp under attack, and I set down the writing material as quick as I could, exited the tent again through the same hole, closed it as best as I could with some tape I had on me and made my way to the rookery, looking at the letter in my hand, making sure it looked official as possible when I finally got to that rookery, passing the same squire, and grabbed the nearest pigeon already trained to fly to what was labeled as "Artillery camp 2."

At least I hoped that was the right camp. I checked my pocket watch. 11:57. 3 more minutes. I grabbed the pigeon, not attaching the message just yet, but stuffing it into my jacket pocket as I looked for the nearest thing to blow up and start a panic. And I saw it, a stockpile of blasting jelly.

I decided to do one last thing, to cripple as much of their communications as possible, and, despite my love of the animals, took out a match and set it down on the straw below the rookery, knowing it would light up soon, bringing the camp to life with the sound of screaming pigeons.

It was close enough to time now. I put the message in the pigeon's bag behind it, and set it loose, watching it fly to make sure it went in the right direction. And thank Raava it did, to the Northeast, right towards my target.

The fire had now begun to spread, and the birds began making their noise. The camp was springing to life and I had one last target. I was running now, matching the speed of the rest of the camp, lighting my last match. I ran past the stockpile and threw the match directly at the nearest barrel, throwing my knife alongside it to get some of the jelly falling out as quick as possible and ran just as quickly, but not fast enough to escape it.

I felt myself carried by the impact of the blast and was on the ground a second later, still alive, but the world on fire around me.

It worked.

 **Luke**

"No. Stop." I said, putting a hand in front of Zek.

"What? We're past our mines."

"Yeah. Ours. See that dirt to the side of it, recently dug. They have mines here."

"Mines. Got it. I'll write that down."

"Are you actually writing anything?"

"Of course I am."

"Let me see." I said, taking the notepad from him. He was in fact writing but calling it even the least bit legible was something far different. "The hell is this?"

"My handwriting. Why? Got a problem with it?"

"More than 'a'. Who the fuck is going to be able to read this?"

"Well. I can."

"Really? What does this say?" I asked, pointing to a note at the top of the page.

"It says…mine?"

"There's 2 letters here. Mine has 5. Just give me the damn pen."

He handed me his pen and I saw the hint of a grin as he handed it to me, having just dodged his job for the night. "I should've just let you walk into that mine." I grumbled.

"Well that's not very nice of you to say."

"Fuck off." I said, not able to stop myself from smiling, but luckily, in the dark, facing away from him, he'd have no way of seeing.

But then, for a moment, that dark was gone, and then there was a noise. I looked towards where I'd heard it, and saw it, over the walls, fire.

I tugged on Zek's shirt, saying "Zek. Zek!"

"What? The sound was from the northeast not that-oh. The hell? Is that?"

"Fire. On the other side of the walls."

"What the hell is going on there."

I had seen things like this before. Back in Citadel, but never this extreme. "Rioting."

"Why?"

"They have no food. We're starving them out to the point of turning on their own city."

"Well. Makes it easier for us."

"No kidding."

"But hey, Luke. That noise we heard. That wasn't from the city. That was from behind us."

"What?"

"Yeah."

I looked where he was pointing but saw nothing past the hill in front of us. I created a small flame in my left hand, looking for where mines might have been dug, but saw none. I climbed up the hill, slowly, and carefully, and just beyond, in the distance, I saw it. A fire going to the sky, lighting an entire artillery camp I had no idea existed, with an Earth Kingdom banner above it.

I looked to my notebook, quickly, writing it down, ignoring its apparent self-destruction when another explosion came in the opposite direction, towards the wall, and saw the second explosion just in time, seeing the shockwave approach us in the midst of the night until it hit us with one of the loudest booms I've heard and was left there, wondering what the hell was happening.

"What the hell is happening?" I asked.

"I have no idea. Equipment malfunctions?"

"That well timed? No. Must be sabotaged."

"Shiiit. The blackfyres."

"Fuck. You're right, but what the hell are they planning?"

And then, not a minute later, did the real chaos begin. Streaks of Fire in the air appeared above us and flaming rocks were sent into the air and I could have sworn we'd been caught, until, however, the flaming artillery rounds didn't fall upon us, but went beyond, striking the other Earth Kingdom camp, to which they promptly returned their own fire. I went back on top of the hill, my gaze following the rocks as they hit the 2nd artillery camp, and the two were caught in an incident of friendly fire that I couldn't trust my own eyes to be reporting accurately on.

And if the night hadn't been chaotic enough, just to our left, thousands of Fire Nation tanks were riding over their own mines, taking no damage, heading straight towards the Earth Kingdom trench lines.

And then I realized why I was out here. This wasn't Boss giving me a chance to get out on the field. This was his way of keeping me away from the fighting.

I was underequipped. I had no helmet. I had a limp right arm, and no weapons aside from firebending. I wasn't equipped for battle. Just as Boss hoped, but he wasn't going to stop me. Nothing was. I was here to kill Earthbenders. And nothing was going to stop me


	41. Chapter 39: Battle of the Forward Camp

**Luke**

I dropped myself into the nearest trench line, perpendicular to the rest of their fortification and barricades, placing my left hand on the loose ground to support myself as I vaulted into the trench, falling into a feet hole, but still managing to land on my feet, balance intact.

All I could hear before dropping into the trench was the rumble of the tanks moving around me. I was at the very edge of the trench line so I hadn't just dropped into the middle of the Earth Kingdom army, no, they were sending all of their men to the center of their fortifications to fend off against the metal monsters driving over their intricate trench lines, that had taken months to set up and defend, in a matter of seconds.

Where I was though, that rumble of the tanks was just a white noise in the distance. In the trenches though, it almost seemed, quiet. I looked around me, seeing that behind me, towards the enemy camp, the trench ended in a dead end, rising to ground level. That wasn't where I wanted to go. The fighting was down here. And down here was where I was aiming to be.

Zek hadn't followed me. I didn't blame him. From the distance on top of that hill, watching as hundreds to thousands of tanks rolled indiscriminately over mines, blowing them up underneath them, rushing to meet a barrage of weaponized earth when just so weaponized fire, only a psychopath would've been dumb enough to follow me, or be me for that matter.

I stayed where I was though, and took advantage of the momentary silence, slowing my heart rate, calming myself down, watching the trench lines, seeing the directions they went. The main trench line went north. The enemy camp was to the northeast. Tanks were going over the trench lines now, straight towards the camp. Infantry would be right behind the tanks, ready to secure the trenches at a moment's notice while the tanks finished off the camp. I had my bearings, and I walked, coming to the first corner, a turn to the right, north. I peeked around first, seeing nothing, choosing to move right after. The trench line, after 50 feet or so of heading north, turned east.

Earth Kingdom trenches, or many trenches for that matter, never faced perfectly in one direction. Made them too easy to storm and harder for the enemy to secure while defenders could fight guerilla battles in their own trenches, perfectly secure. Now though, that was an advantage for me. When the real battle began though, and infantry stormed the trenches, then things would get bloody.

I turned east, looking ahead at the next turn and paused. _Voices._

I listened. "Just get him out of the trench and we'll come back to- "

 _Coming towards me._

I took a breath, created a mental image of how I'd turn the corner and get the jump on them, however many, fast enough to move before they could react. They were on the edge of the battle. They wouldn't be expecting resistance. I'd prove them wrong. I had the advantage here. Now I just had to used it.

I took a breath, flexed the muscles in my left hand, allowing myself to feel the chi flowing in my body, and I turned the corner. I didn't spare a moment to see the looks on the faces of the men as I turned to meet them 5 feet in front of me. I just fired.

I allowed a constant flow of fire to pour from my hand, engulfing them in flames that seemed to change in color as they moved about their bodies, desperate to find material to cling to and feast on. Jeong Jeong was always right. Fire. Fire was different. It was alive. And it was hungry.

I lowered my arms, and they were dead. 3 of them. 2 supporting an injured man between them, all dressed in Earth Kingdom attire. All combatants. Fair game. I continued along, moving North along the trench line the dead man had just been treading along seconds ago.

The trench then turned to the left, west, and I followed it. It was a much shorter segment, and the noise was picking up now. I was beginning to hear the shouting, the tanks rolling along the ground, and the sounds of war ahead of me. I went straight ahead, forgetting to scan the intersection where the line went north and instantly saw the two Earth Kingdom soldiers staring at me with the same surprise I did them, but they were quicker to recover than I, or at least, one was.

The left most soldier send a hastily grabbed chuck of rock flying in the air towards me. I flung myself to my left, slamming along the westmost side of that trench line and fired a bolt of fire. It missed the bender but hit the nonbender archer who apparently was in the middle of nocking an arrow. The blast took him in the chest sending him to the ground as the bender now constructed a solid disk of Earth, hurling it straight at my face.

I threw myself backwards to the ground, the disk of earth slamming of the wall behind me, the debris caking me in its shards and dust, and I conjured another flame, and shot it at the bender, taking him in the right of his chest, sending him to the ground without a sound, dead.

I took only a second to recover my breath, and stood again, knowing now more than ever, every second counted as I neared the battle more and more. And now, as I moved along that northern trench line, the sounds of the battle really made themselves known. Artillery fire, screaming, blast of fire and the crashing of Earth, in every direction of me.

I stepped over the 2 fresh bodies, moving north, until the wall to my left exploded as a tank's rear treads applied to much weight to a weaker part of the trench wall, sending the rear of the tank falling into the trench directly behind me, only a foot, sending me to the ground from the explosion of earth, shuffling my feet to recover, falling again. The tank recovered its ground, still sending shots of fire from the turret at combatants on ground level, too high for me to see until a spear from what I could only assume was that tank's latest victim came flying into the trench right in front of me.

I was still stumbling to regain my footing, the trench, in the thick of night, being lit only by the occasional nearby blast of fire, which in my case, just saved my life, for I was rushing towards the next corner in the trench, a blast of fire from the battle above illuminated two shadows, two approaching men, running straight towards my trench.

I didn't take a second to hesitate. I grabbed the spear to my left, clutching it with my left hand, balancing its weight with my armpit, and charged, hoping to meet them face to face before they had the opportunity to catch me at a distance and blow my head clean off. So I charged, and they turned the corner, and the Earth Kingdom soldier taking point didn't have a second to blink before I plunged my spear into his chest one handed, nailing him to the wall behind him.

I turned to my right, raising my right arm to fire until I had that sudden reminder, provided by the pain it dealt, that it was still broken. The Earth Kingdom soldier, still taken aback, had, despite his shock, already raised his sword for a killing blow when the earth behind him exploded in flares of red, orange, and yellow, sending him flying in a dozen pieces as his corpse shielded me from the explosives more damaging effects, sending me to the ground all the same.

I pushed his corpse off of mine, sending the limbless and near headless torso to my right as I attempted to stand, seeing the tank that had just saved my life, smiling to see as it continued northeast towards the enemy camp until its turret aimed towards me, and I realized, I was in the enemy trench, before the infantry had gotten here. Everyone in this trench, for all intents and purposes, was Earth Kingdom.

I dived to my right, behind the corner wall as the blast of fire exploded directly around the corner, caking me in dust, muck, and blood from the corpse still waiting there.

I peeked around the corner after a moment to see the tank was moving along, focusing on bigger and better things, and decided to do likewise, continuing east, in the near same direction as the tank, taking a left, then another left to the point I was facing west once more, ready to turn northwards, looking this time.

I could tell by the noise now, the screaming of orders, and the pure increase in volume of the chaos around me, that I was at the center of things now. I turned that corner for a look, and what I saw just confirmed that. 30 Earth Kingdom soldiers huddled together, some operating mortars, more firing disks of Earth at the oncoming enemy, and more manning the sides, guarding the real soldiers.

They saw me the second I turned that corner and the disk of earth coming my way missed my head by a second, breaking apart against the corner of the trench wall.

I took a breath or two, flexed my hand, and got ready to turn that corner for what would probably be the last time either way, knowing I wouldn't let myself turn and run the other way.

I sprung off my left leg to make the turn when suddenly, over 20 firebenders and Fire Nation soldiers dropped into the trench, some dropping some jumping, in the literal middle of the Earth Kingdom formation, burning and stabbing and slashing at the enemy as I watched in pure awe as the 30 Earth Kingdom soldiers were reduced to corpses in the span of 10 seconds.

The soldiers then went their own ways, 10 going north, 10 going south, passing me as I still stood in awe, watching them, at the last moment, seeing the patches on their left shoulders. "The First Legion" I mouthed as they passed by me. _Iroh's personal infantry._

 _Of course._

I shook myself out of my state of awe, and went north, towards where the thicker fighting was bound to be. The armored had passed as I could tell from the lack of tank treads rolling in the midst of the rest of the chaos now amplified by the war cries of Fire Nation infantry as they stormed the trenches, eliminating the defenders that had been left shocked and disorganized by the armored blitz that was our nation's mechanical might.

I followed the 10 soldiers heading north, the shortest among them by a disturbing amount, none of them less than a foot taller than me. And as I went north, I realized the trenches were done. Earth Kingdom corpses lied motionless on the ground, bloodied, gorged, dismembered, dead or dying.

It was done here. I turned to leave the trench, searching for the nearest ramp leading out in the hopes of getting to their camp before the fighting there was done. A minute had passed until I found the nearest exit leading to the east and I took it up, and realized then, I was too late.

I looked to the northeast, where the Earth Kingdom camp was, or rather, had been, and saw nothing but the fire and smoke rising from where their tents had previously stood as Fire Nation tanks rumbled in the distance, finishing off all remaining opposition.

And as soon as it had begun, without warning, the battle had ended. We were victorious, but in that moment, it didn't matter to me. I had missed it.

 **Danev**

I had been right in the middle of it when it began. The explosion went off, knocked me to the ground, and when I had woken up and gotten back up, regaining full conciseness, I had seen a legion of Fire Nation tanks coming straight towards me.

Then in the span of 5 minutes, the camp was ash. Just like that. It was the fastest and most well-coordinated attack I had ever seen. Iroh and his command had only possessed a few hours to come up with a plan of attack and they had done so perfectly. The battle had lasted no more than 10 minutes and by the end of that time period, 2 Earth Kingdom camps had been destroyed, their trench line had been pushed back, we were around a mile closer to the inner walls, and over a thousand Earth Kingdom soldiers were dead with an unknown number of friendly casualties, but I'd guess under 50.

It might just have been the most successful Fire Nation military operation in history. And it was because of me. _No. That was vain. But it's true, it may not have worked without me. Or even happened. That's all there is to it, and you know what? That's fine by me._

I walked across what used to be the camp grounds, past corpses of Earth Kingdom soldiers, either covered in scorch marks or filled with crossbow bolts. I was walking closer to where I had blown up the artillery stash. There were less bodies around there. The fire had gone up quick and few were willing to get near it hence the lack of bodies, but then I heard a clinging on the ground and saw the last thing I expected to see.

I had thrown my dagger, well, Zurang's dagger, at the blasting jelly stash to get the jelly leaking out to start the explosion. I knew it had worked as I had been thrown to the ground by that very same explosion not a few moments later, but I had assumed the dagger had been lost, but there it was, beneath my foot, in one piece, as bright and shiny as ever.

I bent over to pick it up, still failing to comprehend what the hell I was looking at, refusing to believe it could have survived something like that, but there it was, in my hands, in better shape than when I had retrieved it from Zurang's body, or rather, what had been left of it.

I chuckled, still amazed, as I sheathed the blade back into my belt, wondering what the hell else I would find. Apparently, it was a good day for miracles. Who knew what else lay ahead?

It wasn't a what else though, it was a who else. "Luke?" Yeah. It was him. "Hey Luke! Holy shit. It's you!"

He was covered in dirt, dust, muck, and blood (hopefully not his) and he was looking around the camp not with the awe I had, but with, well, disappointment kind of. But what the hell was he doing here, on the ground? Had he come out of his tank? And why did he look so down and beat up? Was his tank hit?

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah. I. I guess. Is it over?"

"Yeah. You're alright, man. It's over." I thought he had been asking me for comfort, but he didn't seem right.

"Damn." Was his response. "I missed it."

I looked him over again, seeing the remains of the battle painted all over him. "It doesn't look like you missed it."

He looked over himself, checking his hands, his right arm no longer braced, just casted, but it looked as though most of it had come off in the fighting. "Oh this?" he asked. "Just a little fight. I missed the real deal though."

I had to laugh at that. "Real deal? It was over in 5 minutes."

I didn't know what response I'd get, but "Huh. Alright." Wasn't up there with my top guesses. He continued, seemingly out of his trance of disappointment. "So Danev. How long's it been, again?"

"2 months? More or less."

"Hmm. I guess I oughta hug you or something considering that you're still alive?"

At least he still had his wit. "Something like that would be cool, I guess."

"Alright." He came up to me and us last 2 Hornets, amazed after all this time we were still alive, gave each other what could only be described as the manliest of man hugs amidst the destruction of that battleground.

"So this your handiwork?" he asked as we split apart.

"Some of it."

"Should I assume you're to credit with a fortunate case of friendly fire on behalf of our beloved opposition?"

"You could say that."

He took on last glance at the remnants of the Earth Kingdom camp, nodding his head approvingly, saying "Nicely done."

"Thanks. Hopefully command will feel the same."

"You shitting me? You're getting a promotion for this shit. Add that to helping bring down the wall from the inside. Fuck. That's a division for you or some shit right there."

"I doubt that, but a pay raise would be nice."

"Shit. For all this, making Sozin look like a novice when it comes to blowing shit up, you're pay grades gonna match the whole Starros family combined."

"Ooh. I'd like that. Buy myself a nice factory to settle down while selling weapons to whoever pays. I'd like that."

"I know you would."

Then a new voice entered the mix, and we both shot to attention by instinct and instinct alone at the sound of Lu Ten's voice. "Boys." He said.

And of course, we spun around to face him as he approached us, him too looking worn from the battle, blood covering his armor while his face and entire body for that matter were smeared in mud and muck.

"Sir!" we said in unison as he approached us.

He gave us a tired half-salute as he approached us, murmuring "At ease. Danev. Nice work with the explosives. Both here and at the wall. If you gave us more time we could have attacked tomorrow and let you keep your cover with Earth Kingdom forces."

"That cover's long gone, sir. If they don't know my face by now, their general sure as hell will know better than to let anyone go alone."

"What general? Kozad?"

"Yes sir. The general of this camp."

"He died in the attack. We found his body right outside his tent. Got killed by some random tank. Nobody's claiming his death for their own. Shit. Dad's going to be pissed. He wanted him alive. Sorry. And Sergeant Luke. Funny seeing you here. I recall you were assigned to Squad Iron Fire. Funny seeing you on the ground and not with them."

Luke spoke up, saying "I was on patrol, sir. With corporal Zek. We saw the battle in the distance, and I rushed to join."

"And what was the analysis of your patrol, sergeant?"

"That the Earth Kingdom has a lot of mines that are now disabled by our tanks. That the Earth Kingdom has a long line of trenches now secured by our men, and that the Earth Kingdom has a second artillery camp now destroyed by, wait for it, our men. My commander just wanted me out of the fighting. That's all."

"I wouldn't say that. He didn't even know there was to be an attack tonight. We only got word of it at around mid-afternoon. Still, while I respect your willingness to assist in the fighting, and, judging by the looks of you, you did a whole lot of that, please don't disobey direct orders in the future. Much more of that and I may have to demote you to keep up appearances, but for now, good work. Both of you. Staff Sergeant Danev, report to the command tent at 0800 this morning for a full debriefing. Sergeant Luke, you get back to your squad and stick with them. The closer we get to the wall; the more dangerous things are going to get. For now, get some rest, and be ready for whatever comes next come morning. Dismissed."

With that, the two of us saluted again, and Lu Ten returned the favor before turning and leaving.

"As I said." Spoke Luke. "One hell of a promotion."

 **Long Feng**

The morning report was a mix of good and bad that morning. I, personally, always preferred to start with the good. Get it out of the way until I got to what I needed to work on to amend.

That, however, only applied when Joo Dee was around to sort the news. Now, though, it was anyone's guess as to which report was good, and which bad. A report from Kaizar regarding the night's operation, and a report from Earth Kingdom forces outside the wall, now being led by Lieutenant General Hazal. Considering one report was from my most efficient agent and one from a random lieutenant general filling in for his general, it wasn't hard to assume which was good, and which wasn't.

I opened Kaizar's report, glad to see I had been right. The midnight operation had been a complete success. Food stocks in the middle district had been burned and successfully blamed on the rioters. Attached were reports from scouts of infighting amongst the rioters that got better and better. Also as I expected, the middle district had been overrun. There was sporadic fighting against rioters, but most of the police and army had retreated to the inner district where they were now holding the line. As per my orders too, no civilians had been evacuated to the inner district. We wouldn't be able to feed even a quarter of them, but now, far more secure, with far fewer mouths to feed, perhaps we could finally get back to administering this city. And all of this had been done in the night, while his grace remained in his bed, unable to thwart my efforts to save his Kingdom.

I then, setting down the 'good' news, turned to what was less so pleasant to read. It was failure after failure, listed on a single sheet of paper, all leading up to eventual final item that remained unlisted, complete destruction. I was doing what I could to save this city from the threats inside, but those who had been sent to defend this city from its exterior threats were far less successful. I read the report, mentally omitting the filler and reading only what mattered:

" _Surprise attack."_

" _Midnight."_

" _Defeated."_

" _Over a thousand tanks and infantry."_

 _1,397 KIA. 3,426 wounded._

" _Trenches overrun and occupied."_

" _2 artillery camps overrun."_

" _Unknown friendly fire incident."_

" _General Kozad KIA."_

" _Full retreat to Auxiliary camp."_

I set the report down. It was far worse than what I normally had come to expect from the 'bad' reports. A total military disaster in every sense of the word.

There was no way to view the report in a more positive light. We had been completely destroyed outside. Ever since Iroh broke through the wall, they haven't lost any momentum. They've trampled over our line and we were suffering. Badly.

Their morale was stronger than ever. Our morale was failing by the day. Our men were tired, sick, and were losing faith in their own King. And who could blame them? Meanwhile, the Fire nation was at the beating heart of their enemies, ready to deal a killing blow.

Somehow, someway, we would have to break them, but how?

I planted my face against my hand, resting it against the table. General How would get a report of the battle soon. He would make a decision on how to best defend against the Fire Nation. That was his forte, not mine. Me, I had a responsibility of my own. One far more subtle, and delicate. If we couldn't break the Fire Nation from the outside, I'd have to try and do it from the inside.

 **Iroh**

By 0800 that selfsame morning, it was hard to tell a battle had even come to pass. New trenches were already being dug. The bodies of the Earth Benders had been piled and burned in their old trench lines to prevent the spread of disease and promptly reburied, and our own forces along with our artillery now dominated this old Earth Kingdom campsite. We were moving and moving quickly.

And now, at exactly 0800, I sat in my tent with my son at my side and his up and coming protegee by the looks of it, seated in front of us.

I could tell Lu Ten liked him. He saw a lot in him, and I couldn't blame him. Danev was a good soldier. Smart, resilient, and possessing a keen grasp on survival. It was his old friend Luke, however, that truly interested me. An Air Nomad in my very camp, in my army, and from what he's demonstrated, totally loyal to the Fire Nation. It was an odd thing.

I had already convinced myself that Zar'un had been wrong about the kid. That he was imagining things and Luke was just a normal Fire Nation soldier, not to imply he was normal in any way, but I pushed Luke out of my head. This debriefing wasn't about him. It was about his older counterpart, seated directly in front of me.

"Congratulations on your success, Staff Sergeant." I started.

"Thank you, sir."

But I wasn't done. I wanted to see how he responded to praise. "You single handedly infiltrated Earth Kingdom lines, blew a hole in the largest wall known to human history, incited a friendly fire incident between hostile forces, and sabotaged enemy artillery." Lu Ten was giving me a questioning look. He knew some of what I said hadn't been true. He didn't understand, though. He knew Danev, the man in front of me more than I did. I desired an opinion of my own. A take on the man in front of me as I would have to make a decision by the end of this meeting as whether or not to move this soldier higher up the chain of command, or not. I finished with "Do you have anything to say?"

"Well. Yes, sir. None of it was single handed. I had squad blackfyre with me for the entire thing. I hardly blew up the wall on my own. There was an entire army above and beyond that would attest to that. And everything else I did at the camp, I also did with private Za'ik and corporal Zonda. Za'ik got you the message to tell you to attack and Zonda infiltrated the second artillery camp. And. I was meaning to ask. Where is he? I haven't seen him since the battle ended."

Humility. Truthfulness. Respect. And concern for his men under him. I had what I needed. I, decided, however, to let Lu Ten deliver the news, and conveyed this with a nod in his direction.

I'm sorry, Danev." He started. "Corporal Zonda was found dead at the second artillery camp. It looks like he had been killed by Earth Kingdom forces while trying to defend a cache of blasting jelly he had lit. He was successful at the very least."

"Oh." He said, the expression on his face changing from one that had just received overwhelming praise to one that had learned of a comrade's death. "Okay. Thank you for telling me."

I continued now, knowing for sure, beyond all shadow of a doubt what my verdict would be. I could now see what my son had seen. He really did have an eye for talent. "Your squad completed its mission to perfection despite heavy casualties to your squad. Your mission, however, was one in the heart of enemy territory and your success speaks for your talents on the field of war. Before your assignment to squad Blackfyre, you served under Captain Ze'lak in the 31st platoon?"

"Yes sir. Will I be reassigned there?"

"In a way. Captain Zean'in died in the infantry charge of the trenches last night and we have seen fit to have you fill his place as you know the men previously under his command, some of them originating from Citadel as well."

I had hoped to allow Danev to fill the rest, but the look on his face was enough to tell both my son and me that he would need some help. I allowed my son to finish, having already had the displeasure of delivering the bad news. "Congratulations, Captain Danev. You've been promoted to the commander of the 31st platoon." He said, handing Danev the rank patch and pauldron he had already stashed on his lap in expectation of my approval.

Danev took the items out of muscle memory alone as he still struggled to come to the point of speaking words until he managed to get out "I-uh. I. Thank you, sir. SIRS!" He nodded to both of us and backed out of the tent until stopping himself and pointing outside as though asking whether or not he was dismissed to which I confirmed "You're dismissed, Captain."

And when I turned to face my son, he was smiling, knowing he was right. I couldn't force myself to not smile back. He was right. He had found a good soldier. A diamond in the rough.

He stood up now, sitting across from me where his companion had just previously been seated, asking "So what now, father?"

"Now, we wait. We cannot afford to storm their next camp just yet. We've captured on the council of 5 and killed another."

"Sorry about that."

"It's not your fault. War is confusing. Things like this tend to happen, but with 3 members left, General How will send Generals Sung and Sodhru to face us. They'll play the defensive, hoping to wait us out. They will be reduced to catapult artillery which will be far more dangerous to our infantry. Their camps will be far harder to infiltrate now, and we will also be facing hostile citizenry the closer we get to the inner wall. We are currently over farmland, but the closer we get to the wall, the more towns and villages we'll encounter. These will be prime spots for ambushes and enemy camps. We should attempt to avoid them until completely necessary."

"So we have these threats ahead of us, but how do we take the next camp?"

"That, my son, is what I intend to find out with your help right now." I smiled to him. "Let us begin."


	42. Chapter 40: Hearts and Minds

**Luke**

"Luke! There you are."

I had finally found my squad amidst the post-battle re-organization of the camp. Most of the new forward camps had been occupied and dug out, but I finally managed to find where my squad had been during it all.

I didn't see Boss near the front, so I held back any salutes. I had none to give unless it was demanded by me. I wasn't particularly pleased to say the least. It didn't matter what Danev and Lu Ten had said. I had missed it. Missed it all. I was lucky enough to be in the trenches for the 3 and a half minutes that the fighting had been going on, but that was that. I should have been in my tank, at the front, leading the charge, trampling over their trenches and attacking the camp head on. That's where I was meant to be, not on some idiotic patrol mission.

And Lu Ten was wrong, in a sense. Boss may have given me my orders to patrol before we knew about the attack, but I heard about the blackfyre member getting to camp before I left. He came saying there would be an attack, and Boss didn't bother to tell me. He excluded me.

I didn't care about being excluded. I didn't care if I was liked or not in my squad. It made no difference to me. I was only in a squad because without one, I wasn't being deployed again. I was being sent back. Away from the front. And I wasn't going to let that happen. I was here to fight, and I would take every opportunity I got.

"Boss wants to see you." Said Gordez, who after 2 months' time no longer viewed me as a stranger, for better or worse.

"Convenient." I said as I passed him. "I want to see him too."

I walked past and maintained my course headed straight for his command tent, which really, was nothing special, just his tent which he didn't share with anyone else. That was as glorious as command of a squad got.

I opened the tent and there he was, at a small table in the back-right corner, seated behind it, with Zek standing directly in front. _So Zek ratted me out to Boss. That's nice._

And of course, Boss spoke first. "So I hear you abandoned your patrol to engage the enemy last night."

Oh. So he wasn't beating around the bush. That's a nice surprise. I could've made an argument about how I didn't abandon my patrol. About how I was merely getting in closer for a batter look, but much like my renowned squad leader, I was in no mood for bullshit.

"Yes. I did."

"Why?" He didn't say those last words with malicious intent or disappointment. He said them like a University student in a lecture asking why a certain physical equation worked. He had no preconceived notions about what I did, save the fact I disobeyed orders. At least, that's what I believed.

"Sir, I was sent to Ba Sing Se for one reason. I'm a fire bender, and we're in short supply in high demand. I was sent here to kill Earth Benders. So that's what I did. I killed Earth Benders."

"You disobeyed a direct order."

"I disobeyed **your** order, but right now, it's more important that I'm out there killing he enemy than waiting around, counting landmines that were going to get run over and disabled anyway. It's more important, than counting squared feet of a trench line that isn't going to change any upcoming battle because, wait, it's already started."

"So you get to decide which orders are important and which aren't?"

Was he framing me for insubordination or treason right now? Trying to make it look like I was a traitor acting against the Fire Nation's interests?

"I get to decide when I'm being wasted. I get to notice when resources aren't being used as this should, and I get to decide when I have the chance to fix that."

"No. You don't." His voice was louder this time, and he seemed to realize that when he saw the look on Zek's face. I, however, remained still. I knew I was in the right. I wasn't going to let myself get wasted by a commander who clearly didn't recognize what I was capable of. Boss turned to Zek. "You're dismissed."

And so Zek saluted and left, no doubt happy for it.

And the second Zek was out of eyesight of Boss, he continued. "How long have you been in the Fire Nation, Luke? A year? Less?"

"11 months."

"11 months. I've been in the Fire Nation for 5 years, kid. Since I was 14. Do you know how things work in this army? You follow orders. Whether you like them or not. Whether they're right or wrong."

"Are you saying what you did was a mistake, then? Keeping me on patrol."

"It wasn't a mistake. I kept you on patrol for a reason."

"What reason!? I'm a good soldier. I can fight. I can kill. This arm. It's nothing. I don't need it. I can fight without it."

"Being able to kill a trench of Earth Kingdom soldiers doesn't make you a soldier! It's makes you a killer. Following orders makes you a soldier. Like them or not."

"Even if they're wrong? Even if they're clearly short-sighted?"

"Get used to it, kid. That's the army. And that's our squad. You're with us now, like it or not. You follow my orders. Do what I say. And you never, under any circumstances, put the life of a comrade in harm's way."

I had to scoff at that. "Who's life?"

"Zek's. You abandoned him in the middle of a minefield."

"A minefield he had the map to."

"At minimal distance away from an enemy trench line."

"A trench line under attack from overwhelming allied forces."

"With no form of self-defense."

"What? So I'm his baby sitter? I'm responsible that he didn't bring a weapon with him? What was I supposed to do? Just keep on 'patrolling' the area for anything of interest when there's a battle happening a minute's run away where our help would be more than welcome?"

"You're expected to do your part! For the Fire Nation and for your squad!"

"That's what I was doing! I was fighting. I'm a warrior. I'm a soldier. It's not your interests I care about. It's the Fire Nation's. The world's. I'm trying to fight to end this war as soon as possible and you're holding me back!"

"You're fighting for your own bloodlust, Luke. You don't care about the Fire Nation. You don't care about the world. I'm not saying you hate the two, but they had nothing to do with your decision to kill those Earth Benders last night. You did that because you wanted them dead. Because you're angry and hateful. I can't have that here."

"Then get rid of me. Kick me out of this squad."

"Would that I could, but Division command is more interested in organizing resources for the next assault than reassigning soldiers. I can't kick you out. You're just going to have to tough it out with us."

"Fine. Then I quit. I'll find a transfer. I'm sure Division Command would just love another Fire Bender. Maybe then I'll finally find a unit where I can fight. Make a difference."

Boss was silent at that. He looked worried. Not in a worry for himself, but something else. Worry for me? Yeah. Right.

"What?" I asked. "Nothing to say?"

What was I waiting for? For him to make me another deal? Promise he'd give me a better assignment in the future?

I scoffed. "Fuck this. You'll have your orders by tonight. Agree or don't. It doesn't matter to me, but I'm gone. One way or another.

I left it at that. I had bags to pack.

 **Danev**

I saw the letter on my desk, and it took me a solid minute to remember that it wasn't a mistake. I was already making my way out of my tent to give the letter to my commander when I stopped and remembered that when the letter had been addressed to "The Captain of the 31st Platoon", it had meant me.

I walked back into my tent, somewhat embarrassed and sat down behind my desk to read my first official orders as Commander of a platoon. I already had the new armor, adorned in certain markings of my rank and the patch of the 31st. It looked good. There was no denying that.

I fed some gas to the lamp, letting the fire grow to a flame bright enough for me to read. Even with the small opening in the tent, hardly enough light was getting through for me to see a thing. I missed my old tent where the entrance was always open.

And so, after unsealing the letter and failing to read it for the 5th time in the still ungodly-dim room, I put out the lamp, walked to the tent's opening flaps, opened them, and tied them open, allowing the late morning light to enter the room. _There. Better._

I sat down again, and new light was literally shed on the letter in front of me. My first orders. Orders that Iroh and Lu Ten had spent the night coming up with. My part in the upcoming strategy may be small, but I had no doubt in the plan they were creating.

I read the orders.

 _"Operation Farmville_

 _Earth Kingdom sympathy remains high in local villages, settlements, and farmscapes despite reports of unrest in the capital. Fire Nation forces will be conducted a large-scale operation to secure Earth Kingdom settlements surrounding the newly erected Earth Kingdom camp manned by Generals Sodhru and Sung. Infantry will be working in unison with Armored Forces, heading both North and East to surround a sizable portion of the Inner ring._

 _31_ _st_ _Platoon, your orders will be to capture the nearby Earth Kingdom village of Red Mulch. The 31_ _st_ _platoon will tow 2 carriages of food and medical supplies to earn the loyalty and support of the town. Offer yourselves as peacekeepers. Under no conditions will looting, pillaging, murder, or rape be tolerated. Any incidents of such will be meet with death penalty and commanding officers will be held accountable._

 _Operation initiates at 1400. New orders will arrive on the morrow._

 _The war is at its end. Make your Nation Proud. For the Fire Nation. For Fire Lord Azulon."_

The message ended there. So we were entering the final stages. But we still had much in front of us. We were nearing the inner ring. That would mean hostile artillery fire from the inner wall. Far more dangerous than anything their ground-based artillery posed to us. They would be far harder to destroy too.

The inner wall, however, was half contested by rioters, the inner portion at least. The Earth Kingdom forces in the camp were also cut off from their supply lines in the city. We could starve them out, but that would take a while. Our resources were running low too. Lu Ten's trip to Chan's fleet managed to yield enough food and supplies for 3 months, but that third month was coming to an end. We would have to start seizing produce from nearby farms and villages

There would be theft, but it wouldn't be looting. With looting, the individual looter benefits. This, however, would be much grander in scale. And as sure as I was that Iroh would have preferred to negotiate peacefully with the natives, I knew nothing would stop him if it stood in the way between him and this city.

I couldn't blame him. We stood on the precipice of the greatest military campaign known to man and the end of a near century long war. The sooner it came to an end, the better. But there was no time to think about the big picture. Now, I had a village to occupy.

 **Luke**

And so I embarked on my final mission with Squad Iron Fire. I had already pocketed my reassignment notice and Boss had already gotten the orders. Damn shame I still had nothing to call him but Boss. I was sure he loved that. Being referred to me by that title even when he very well knew I wasn't one of his anymore. Not by this time tomorrow at least.

I was in the gunner's seat of Shanzi, a fine vehicle I was going to miss. She hadn't led me astray yet and she was a damn good tank. It was one thing about this squad I was going to miss. The people, I didn't worry about. They were just soldiers. **We** were just soldiers. We were all going to die eventually. The sooner I accepted that and stopped trying to make friends with everyone, the better.

We were headed to a rather large farm due 3 klicks East. I had no idea what in fuck's name a klick was, but I'm sure I'd have plenty of time to learn in my new squad. More boring name. Squad 17. It was no iron Fire, but names made no difference on the field. From what the Division Commander had told me, they were tough. Young, but tough. He said they'd like me. I didn't care. So long as I got to fight. And from the way the Lieutenant-General had phrased it, there'd be plenty of that where I was headed.

We got to the farm then. There was a small wooden fence surrounding it. I had expected our tanks to trample over the pathetic wooden fortifications as though they were nothing above the blades of grass crushed beneath us and surround the enemy farm, but Boss rose out of his tank before we got close enough and ordered us to halt.

 _Stop? We have the advantage. We can surround the farm this second and scare them out._ I wanted to voice myself but made no move to do so. I had read the orders. "Hearts and Minds", Boss had called it. Gaining civilian support. Like there were any of those left. It was friend and foe out here. I remembered how it was in Citadel. There was no neutral party. Anyone gets close enough to you, you shove them out of your way. If you don't, you can see a friendly bystander one second, and an enemy with a knife in your throat the next. And the next second, well, you aren't seeing much that next second

And so the tanks stopped at Boss's command and he rose out of his tank, hands still raised. The Farmhouse was directly in front of us. It was a two-story home built of kindling. Poor quality wool. Pine by the looks of it. I could bank two rocks together and the sparks would set this place ablaze. It was a fire read to happen. I imagined it would come to that if they didn't comply.

There was a farm due north of the farmhouse, also pine. Great place to hide Earth Kingdom soldiers. Keep some soldiers in the tanks. If there are soldiers inside, block the doors with the tanks and set the place ablaze. Kill anyone inside all together.

I saw motion inside as we walked towards the house and readied myself to blast it to bits when I saw it was merely livestock. Hippo Cows maybe. Or Moo-sows. The spots meant it could be either or.

We were stopped in front of the house now. The entirety of our squad. Entirely dismounted. _Stupid. Leave drivers in the tanks in case we need to run the people down in case they try to run._

I was fingering the hilt of my sword with my left hand, ready to bring it up if it came to close quarters. If it came to fighting in the house, I wouldn't dare use fire. I had no love for Boss, but I had no desire to burn my own allies alive in there.

Boss noticed what I was doing and motioned a hand for me to abandon my grip on my sword. _What?_

He must have noticed my look, because his response was "We don't want to spook them."

 _Spook them._ I wanted to laugh. They were spooked when they saw 5 steel landships come over the horizon straight towards them. We walk in that house, they're in the cellars, a line of blasting jelly leading through a crack outside, ready to set us up the moment we walk into their house.

"Lower your weapons, men. We're not here to fight."

And his squad followed his orders. They lowered their weapons, even going so far as to sheathe and holster them. _Was Boss trying to get us killed?_

I followed suit, however, and released my grip on my sword, allowing it to slide gently into its resting spot on my hip.

Boss then advanced beyond his squad, nearing the house, still not having crossed the fence, and announced "We know you're in there. We saw the shifting of the light in your house. Don't worry. We're not here to hurt you."

 _Talk all you want. This is the enemy. They'd sooner but an arrow in between your eyes than deal with you._ And just so, there was no response.

"We mean you no ill will. We're not here to hurt you or your family. We simply desire to encamp some of our men near your farm without the fear you'll kill us in our sleep."

I saw the edge of a joking smile on his face as though he were talking to their faced and that a friendly smile would win them over. And of course, there was no response.

"Look. We know what you've heard about us. We know you're scared. Hell. I can't blame you. You've been told your whole lives about us and how we're killers and monsters and now, we're at your front door. I'd also be scared."

 _How the hell is this helping. He's just delaying the inevitable. This end when that house fulfills its destiny as kindling and ends up a pile of ash on the ground. And it would be its occupants that bring us to that point._ I readied myself, letting the chi flow through my body into my left arm as I readied myself to set that bonfire ablaze at the first sign of danger.

"But you don't have to be afraid of us. We're here to help you. We have food and supplies." He was approaching the house. He opened the front gate. "We can be friends."

And the front door of the house opened. A man rushed outside with a crossbow aimed directly at Boss's face and my arms were raised to send a killing blow right at him until Boss raised an arm in my general direction, still approaching the house.

"Go Away!" The man yelled. "We don't want you here!"

Boss walked closer, and the man's grip on the bow tightened. I had my arms raised at the first sign of a move to kill my current commander.

"Put the bow down. We can work this out." Oss continued both in negotiations and steps toward the house

"I Said Go AWAY!"

At that a cry erupted from the house and another figure holding something in her hands appeared at the doorway and I motioned to fire until I realized Boss was too close. He'd get killed too. He was blocking my shot!

I expected the new figure, a woman, to also be carrying a weapon, ready to put a bolt in between Boss's eyes until the cry came again and I realized she was holding a child in her arms. An infant. _I almost shot a baby._

Boss's arms came up again in my direction, only making sure I wouldn't fire. My arms were still raised. I'd seen people use kids as distractions. Reek once told me a story about an Earth Kingdom partisan who strapped a time bomb to a baby and gave it to passing Fire Nation soldiers who took the baby and were promptly blown up. I had no idea if it was true, but I was taking no chances. _If only Boss wasn't in my fucking way!_

"What's her name?" Boss asked.

"What!?" yelled the man.

The baby cried again. "What's the little girl's name?" he asked again, this time looking towards the mother.

"J-June."

"That's a beautiful name. He reached into his belt, the father clenched his hands around the crossbow, but relaxed when Boss pulled out a small ration bar, handing it towards the mother who took it eagerly, taking a bite and giving more to her child.

"She seems hungry." Boss said as he took off his helmet and set it on the ground. "Many people are. Ever since this War began and your nation abandoned you."

"The war you started." The man said, resolved as ever.

"Yes, but he we are. Your entire family must be hungry, and that ration bar will only do so much. We can help you."

"We don't need your help. We were doing just fine before you showed up."

"Your stocks say otherwise. I saw between the boards of your barn. Only calves. Half-starved too, poor things. We understand. Our own poor beasts of burden are dying as well. Our men too are running low on provisions."

"If you're looking for a handout, you've come to the wrong place. You're lucky I don't send you back with a new arrow in your skull."

"We're not here for a handout. As I said, we're here to help."

"In what way? Give us food and supplies. Shit you just said you're almost out of. How stupid do you think I am!"

The infant, despite having been quiet for the last few seconds, resumed his crying at the sound of his father's shouts as the mother attempted to quiet her.

"Consider it an investment." Boss said. "We have manpower, supplies, seeds, irrigation supplies. We can both benefit. All you have to do is lower your crossbow. We can give you farmhands and whatever you need to restore your land to what it once was. All we ask for in return in a portion of your crops to feed our own men. You're not alone. Other towns and farms are supporting us. Your kingdom's abandoned you, but we're here to stay. We're here to help."

"You're just invaders. I've heard about you! And if you think for one minute, I'll- "

He was cut off by the touch of his wife's hand on his shoulder, turning his attention to her and his child. Even from a distance, even despite their inaudible whisper, it was easy to know what she was saying to him. And Boss took that opportunity. "Think about your family."

And so, the man lowered his bow. And it took me a full minute to lower my own arms as the atmosphere of the world around me dissipated from one of an upcoming bloodbath to one of acceptance. Reluctant, but acceptance all the same.

And Boss approached us again and signaled for his men to unload the supplies for the family. Just a small quantity of food and medical supplies. Enough to earn their loyalty. He walked in my general direction and stopped around a foot to my right, saying "Being a soldier isn't about killing or following orders. Being a soldier is about defending those who are unable to defend themselves."

I transferred the next morning. The orders had already gone through. I had already moved to Squad 17's camp by that night, but it wasn't the feeling I had expected. I expected to feel a new sense of purpose and being. A silent thrill at the upcoming opportunity to fight. To be the soldier I was meant to be, but now, I wasn't sure what that even meant.

And so as I settled into my new position in my new squad, I wondered for the first time in 11 months, "What the hell am I doing?"


	43. Chapter 41: Endgame: Part 1: The Plan

**Long Feng**

"He can't know about this." It was the only thing I could think to say. I needed How. Without him, the inner district would have been lost days ago. The war, the Earth Kingdom would have been lost days ago. He was one of the few things keeping this city together. He was needed. And I would need him one last time.

"I-I don't know where to start with you." He was angry. That much was obvious. If I could have used the Dai Li alone for this, I would have, but that would only be solving half the problem. We had two semi-useless generals lost to the latest attack and only lower ranking commanders stuck in the inner ring trying to command what was left of our forces. They lacked any real knowledge of the situation outside the walls and were all the same giving orders.

I'm not out there. I can't say what's going on for certain out there either, but if there's one thing I know, it's that proper command can't be handled miles away from the field. That's why we've been losing this war. Because while Fire Nation generals lead their men onto the field, it's our generals and our war councils hiding in a stone city giving directions to soldiers hundreds of miles away. And it wasn't just leadership the men were lacking, but soldiers too. My Dai Li wouldn't cut it. Not out there. They had different objectives for this war.

"You can start by telling me whether you can do it or not."

"No. That's not where I'm starting. How about we start with the fact that you burned your own city. Starved their own people?"

"It stopped being my city when it was occupied by traitors. And they stopped being my people when they turned their arms on their King."

"The same King you now plan on leaving in the dark."

"Precisely. He is my King, but he is too sentimental. That sentiment will get us all killed. It's the reason these riots grew and why we're now trapped in our own city."

"What do you even want from me? Why come to me at all? You have your Dai Li. They're more than capable of delivering my remaining commanders to the front."

"Because it's not just generals we need. We need soldiers out there."

"Yes. I know. I saw the casualties for the last battle. Damn it. Sung is Missing in Action and Sodhru is reported dead. How did they get the jump on us?"

"Did you not get the report?"

"I got **A** report. Said they came out of the night itself and had new tanks come out of the ground to take the camp and destroy our defenses. I'd be stupid to believe half of that. I imagine you got something a little less colorful?"

"No new tanks, but modified ones. Painted black and interior insulated as well as treads modified to reduce noise and visibility. They waited until the new moon to attack. They failed to keep proper watches and secure perimeters. They're morale is falling and they're becoming lazy. My Dai Li tell me of deserters they've found fleeing the city."

"Were they apprehended?"

"My men have more important duties to see to than apprehending cowards."

"I'm sure they do." He noted with contempt.

"General. I understand that you view it as necessary to remain in the city, defend your king, and tell him all you know of my dealings, but know that to tell him of what I'm doing to save Ba Sing Se, to save the Earth Kingdom, would doom us all."

"So why tell me in the first place?"

"A show of trust. We are some of the few men left to defend our Kingdom on the edge of its defeat. I would not be surprised if we were in fact the only two capable of doing anything about it."

"A show of trust?" he scoffed. "I cannot deny your effectiveness, Grand Secretariat, but burning the food stocks, assassinating political activists, and sewing dissent among our citizenry are strange ways of demonstrating your desire to save this Nation."

"In times such as these, desperate measures become the norm. And I'm afraid I am running low, but you've said you do not deny what it's done. You do not deny the dying down of their protests?"

He sighed. "I don't."

"Then trust me one last time. I need you to divert some of your men from the inner district to the front. Those who are left and have not already deserted are failing in willpower. They will surrender soon and all that will stand between the Fire Nation and us are rioters who will sooner see their sprits brightened by the Fire Nation, seeing them as heroes, than stand in our defense. My agents have already thwarted many of the Dragon's efforts to sneak weapons and supplies to the rioters and I hear whispers of collaboration between outer ring citizens and the Fire Nation. If the Dragon's forces make it to the inner city, it's over for us. The Fire Nation cannot reach the inner wall."

He uncrossed his arms, nodded, and said "You're right. I'll go out there myself. I'll lead the defense and drive them back."

I tried to suppress the smile. _Perfect._

"Are you sure that's necessary? I'm sure the defense of the inner district requires your aid. The Earth King would certainly feel safer with your presence."

"Then you'll have to comfort him for me. You said it yourself. The rioters are near broken. Your strategy to kill our own people worked. Right now, I intend to save my people because you presume too much about the Fire Nation. When they come past these walls, they will kill every man, woman, and child. I'll make sure that never happens."

"How many men will you be bringing with you?"

He was already gathering his armor from where it had been placed atop the map of Ba Sing Se in the council war room. "All but 500. I trust those 500 along with your agents should be sufficient to defend the palace until the Fire Nation is repelled?"

 _Why was it so hard to not smile? Had it been too long without having the desire to express one that it's now nigh impossible to suppress?_ "They will serve fine. Upon your return, the rioters will have been quelled and the city will be back in our hands."

He turned around mid-equipping his right gauntlet, hearing my claim as a challenge of sorts. "And when I return, and the Dragon of the West is repelled, I will have a conversation with the Earth King. I'll make sure that every parchment you ever signed or read over will be uncovered. Your Dai Li will be dissected, and you will answer for what you've done. Justice always comes sooner or later."

"Indeed it does, General How. I wish you luck in the war to come."

He glared at me one last time and left through the chamber doors, leaving me alone as he undoubtedly went to gather his best men for one final expedition to the front. Likely his last. General How would not survive the battle which would hopefully come sooner rather than later. The Fire Nation will defeat him and slaughter his men.

And from that point, with the army eliminated, it would seem as though all would be lost for us, but such wasn't the case. There was no question who my opponent was. It had been known for nearly the last 580 days. General Iroh. The Dragon of the West. Killer of the last of the dragons, hero of the steamed river and the glass desert. A bona fide war hero, but every soldier has a weakness. For Iroh, that was his men. He was sentimental. He sought to minimize casualties whenever possible unless absolutely necessary. It made all the more dangerous, as a matter of fact. He lost less men, he had their absolute loyalty, and his plans were more planned out and sure to succeed, but every strength is a weakness in disguise.

How would lose the coming battle. He would put up a fight. He would give the Fire Nation a battle to remember. Hell, he might even see the rest of my plan through. Unwittingly of course. But he wouldn't survive. He wouldn't surrender until he himself was dead and when he was, the Earth Kingdom Army would fall and logically, the Earth Kingdom, but such wasn't the case.

General Iroh was on a campaign to earn the loyalty of Earth Kingdom civilians, using them as security and sources of food for his men, and so far, it was working, but it wouldn't forever. I would take the trust they've put in their neighbors, and I would use it to not defeat Iroh, and defeat one person in particular. One person on whom this war depended upon. Who without him, this war would be over.

 **Luke**

I looked around me at the field of blood. It was morning now. The battle had lasted all night by the looks of it. The way it had started and ended couldn't have been any more different. 6 hours ago, at midnight, I was on the turret of my tank. We waited, waited for the signal, and finally, saw it. Danev's flare. It came right out of the center of their camp, followed by an explosion in the rear. And by the time the camp was awake, our tanks were already over them, storming over their trenches, burning those still inside like termites in a log.

I myself had contributed to that slaughter. And I didn't blink. I could still see them writhing in the fire, screaming, more for a quick death than for help, but we passed over them, and then the battle began. It had been an hour of slaughter. An hour before they managed to recover. And when they did, it hit hard. My tank was hit, rolled over, and split in two.

My driver was dead, the copilot writhing in pain. I ignored them. I left the tank, pushing the fire aside before meeting the belligerent head on. The one who had toppled my tank and killed my crew. Though I won't lie and say I did it for them. I had no sympathy for the men in my new squad. I finally succeeded where I had failed only too many times in the past. They weren't my friends. They were just other pawns. Like me.

So I killed the bender. I dodged his first attack, fired a bolt at his legs, sending him to the ground, and burned him alive with a constant stream of fire as I walked past him, looking for the next fight. And eventually, I found it. And the next. And the next.

And when the trance of the battle was over, I was covered in blood, I was for some reason carrying an Earth Kingdom sword in my hand and covered in enough blood to make a water bender look like a Fire Nation soldier, the sun was out, and the battle was over. And of course, we had won.

I had two arrows stuck in me. I had had a spear thrust into my thigh not enough to cripple me, but enough to hurt like hell once the adrenaline had worn off, and a sword cut to the chest that would leave a gnarly scar. But it was over. We had won. And I had killed 47 men.

I had found my squad soon after. There were only 7 of them left. They didn't care I was alive, and I didn't care they were. My care ended at the fact I wouldn't have to go through the annoyance of being reassigned again to a squad that would try to coddle me like Boss had. I was done with that.

So now, I was in a medical tent for what felt like the hundredth time in the last year. I couldn't help but smile as I felt the tip of the knife run down my right arm as he Killstreak cut off my cast. I had my arms again. And as he administered to his documents, ensuring there was nothing else he needed to check from me, I found my joy get the better of me as I decided to make conversation, asking "So. Killstreak, huh?"

"Don't start."

"Impressive name. Unfortunate though it's our own guys."

"What's unfortunate is that the reason the number's so high is because I 'accidentally' give the wrong medicine to the assholes that try to be funny about my name."

"Fine fine. I get your point."

I had taken the threat as legitimate at first, thinking I had actually hit a nerve not to my knowledge. And apparently, I had as he soon started on a rant, saying "They come in here with a fucking arrowhead in their chest, inches from their hearts. I remove them and when I go to get disinfectants, they're gone. Then those same assholes come in a week later saying they don't feel so good. Then they die and blame it on me."

"So. It's not your fault."

"Fuck no, it's not my fault! Tell me, you still have any dry socks with you?"

"I. No?"

"Oh for fuck's sake. He left into another wing of the tent and I considered leaving just to piss him off but was nowhere near stupid enough to turn down dry socks. He came back a few seconds later with a pair in each hand, tossing them to my lap where they softly landed, dry and, holy shit, actually warm. He continued, saying "How often you change socks?"

"I don't know. Every half week?"

"What the-? It's a fuckin' miracle you don't have trench-foot. Just yesterday I had 3 people come in here with it. Well. 'here' as in same tent, different camp. I keep on telling them, come in when your feet's still pink, but no, by the time they come in, their toes are gone, their feet are black, and sound like hollow bamboo straws when you hit them with a stick. Idiots. Change your socks every day. Okay? Every day? And keep moving. Don't idle in the mud. Let your socks soak in the rain overnight. We're getting a lot of it now."

"Yeah. Hell, I hate the rain."

"You and me both, but it's good for your clothes and for water supplies. Another word of advice, drink none of the water in no man's land."

"Okay, yeah. That's a given."

"Is it? Private Zuno came in 3 days ago, saying he didn't feel so good. Guess where he drank from?"

"You're kidding me. The pit?"

"The pit."

"The one we found the dead ostrich-horse head in?"

"That very one."

"Idiot!"

"You're telling me. He said he knew, but it looked clear enough and safe to drink."

I gagged at the thought of it and Killstreak looked at me, smiled, and said "Sorry."

"Yeah. I've had enough stories for now."

"I can tell."

"So how do I look? I should get back out there. I have a new arm to use."

"That's disgusting."

"Not what I meant."

"Sure. You looked fine. Your arm should be good to go. Be safe though. Take it easy with the bending. See how much energy flow it can take. It'll take time to get readjusted, but you're way better off now than before. Capable fighter with both hands, more than an adept bender, and shit, I saw your signature when you came in. More than fine penmanship in both hands."

"Hell. I think I actually write better with my left after all this. And my wounds?"

"Well. You won't get any infections since you were smart enough to stick around, but you'll still feel some discomfort in your leg. Take the opioids I gave you daily at night before going to bed for the pain. It's when you're idle that you'll feel the most discomfort so it's only natural you should do something for the pain before going to sleep."

"Makes sense enough, I guess. Anything else?"

"Not. That should be all."

I got up, ready to shake his hand, saying "Hey. Thanks. Oh wait. Before I go, while I was out, hear anything about the aftermath of the battle?"

"Oh. Yeah. Well. We clearly won. General Sodhru was KIA and Sung is MIA. One armored squad was sent searching for him."

"Any word on what's to come?"

"So far, no. All I know is that Iroh's going to be keeping up his hearts and minds campaign for the near future, but we're in the endgame now. One camp is all that's left between us and the inner wall. We're almost there. Pretty cool."

"Yeah. It's crazy alright. Still have no idea what I'm going to do once this is over."

"I don't know? Go to school."

I laughed. Like that was ever going to happen. No. That life was long past. "Thanks for the help, Killstreak. Sorry if I make fun of your name."

"Yeah. You'll be sorry when you realize what those meds, I gave you really are." I was intimidated at first until he smiled, and I shook his hand with him shaking back. And with that, I left.

I had two arms again. It was time to see what firebending was like now with two hands again. And for once, I was actually excited about something. Not just my arms, but the war. I had no idea what I'd do afterwards. I had been fighting for too long now to just throw it all away. But wherever I ended up, I'd be ready. I produced a flame in my right hand and when I saw the size I could bring it to with minimal effort, I smiled, and threw it up at the sky, lighting the camp for a brief second before it dissipated into the mid-morning sky still engulfed in smog and smoke. I smiled. _Yeah. I'm ready._

 **Danev**

"Intelligence tells us General How is leading the defense now."

"Shit."

"Yeah. Shit."

And so it was another one on one strategy session with Lu Ten. 3 days ago, during the 'Battle of the Camp of Two Failures', the name given to the pathetic attempt of a defense put on by Sung and Sodhru, Lu Ten had tried something new. And it had worked to perfection. He had joined the battle along with my platoon. And with his insight into the battle as a whole and our combined efforts at leading our men, my platoon cleaned house, racking a total of 163 kills with only 14 casualties, 3 of them deaths. Tough to replace, but we'd manage.

Since then, Lu Ten had decided to correspond with me more regarding upcoming strategies in the hopes I'd see something he didn't. I guess you could call it a promotion. Of sorts.

"He'll be fortifying." Lu Ten said. "He'll want to draw us into a trap. I don't doubt he's mining no man's land as we speak."

"And we don't have enough artillery to disperse them."

"We have enough to scare them, but we're running low on ammunition for them."

"So a head on approach wouldn't be wise."

"Probably not. We could try detonating them with our tanks again, but I'd be surprised if he hadn't rigged the mines for anti-tank capabilities."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah. Directional blasts. Send them straight up through our armor. It'll blast through steel like soft butter."

"So where does that leave us?"

"Unconventiality. That's why you're here. So tell me. See anything we can use?"

I looked at the map. His camp was backed against the wall, ruling out any chances of a rear attack. And coming from the sides wouldn't work. It would be more fortified than ever, covering a smaller area. We could just barrage him. Come at him with everything we had. We'd lose hundreds. No. We'd lose thousands. Lu Ten, Iroh, neither of them would ever go through with that. I looked through the map, scanning for any unseen detail, saying "Sorry. I really can't see any-"

I paused.

"What?"

What if we **can** go around?

"Danev. What is it?"

"What if we go around?"

"Hard to do with the wall."

"Or is it? Look at this town here, 'Stone's edge.' They're right against the wall and on the far East of the city. I doubt the Earth Kingdom has men there. We could never get a sizeable portion of our army there unseen. They'd have men on the walls to shoot us down the second we got within a mile, but a small group could get to that town."

"And go through there? I wouldn't be surprised if it was still occupied. You saw the villages and farmsteads here. That town is definitely inhabited. They'll spot us coming from leagues away. We couldn't get through."

"Unless it was in their best interest to let us through."

He was thinking now. Thinking beyond countering what I had to say, but building off of it instead.

"If we get through, they still have sentries on the walls here ad there. They'd see us if we were inside. Not to mention the civilians."

"Who are all rioting at the inner district. It'll be a ghost town in there."

"They'll have men at the gate leading to the camp. We'd never get through. It'll be manned at all times."

"Unless those soldiers are busy fending off a real attack."

"So you're saying we'd have the Crimson Army attack their camp, distract them long enough for us to get into the inner district, open a gate behind them, and lead a small force to break their lines and open the way for the army to finish the job?"

"Exactly."

And there was silence. And understandable silence that went beyond considering an idea to working it out in the head. Because it was by no means a small decision to make. And on his face, I saw the moment when he went from convincing himself to knowing it was time to convince others.

He stood up with a speed that startled even me. He was beginning to smile.

"I'll tell my father what you told me. If it gets approved, we leave tomorrow to scout it out. If it's clear like you say, we get our men ready. Then it's getting the inhabitants to side with us and we'll work it out from there."

I stood up now, shocked by the speed at which he was working here. He really believed in this. "And you're sure about this?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Don't start doubting yourself now, Danev. It's too late for that. I'm sold. Get a list of men together. No more than 100. We need to stay small.

I was still agape as he left the camp. I followed him out and said, "So we're really going through with this?" He turned around, continuing to walk in reverse as he said "Oh. That we are. Be ready to leave by tomorrow night! I have a feeling the old man's going to love your plan!"

And with that, he turned around and continued towards his old man's tent. And so, just like that, over a late-night conversation, the course for the end of the war was determined.

 _And all of that without a single insult from a division commander. Yeah. Definitely a promotion._


	44. Chapter 42: Endgame: Part 2: Saviors

**Luke**

The first target went down in a pile of disorganized straw as the rope holding the target together broke bit by bit with the flame of the fire, no longer holding anything together.

The second target took a hit square to where the shoulder would be, spun back, but stayed stood until my second strike blew off a chunk of the target near its left side, sending it into a mad spin into the air, breaking it off of its foundations, falling back to the earth.

The third target stood still from a previous session, but I was done with it now. I had no more use for it. I sent a kick at it this time, hoping to throw in some variety, really get a taste for how I would be operating no that I was back in "working" order.

The kick didn't hit the target. Nor did I intend it to. It hit right where I had aimed, hitting the wooden beam attaching the straw target to the heavy stone base. The wooden splintered broke, and before the straw target could hit the ground, I threw one last punch that hit the target square in the head, exploding on impact, sending flaming pieces of straw flying through the sky.

A few came my way, but I ignored them. I wasn't afraid of a few rogue projectiles. Especially when they weren't tipped in steel arrowheads.

The straw floated harmlessly to the ground around me as I turned around towards the cart where I could easily transport the stone bases and be re-equipped with working targets.

It was a shame there were so few firebending practice dummies around here. All of them had been used up by Iroh's firebenders in the first year and Iroh insisted we not use any of our or the enemy's armor on the dummies. It might come time where such resources would be vital.

I knew we were running low on resources. Bribing local farms and getting their support worked in the short run, but they'd have no time to grow crops for the soldiers. If anything, Iroh was thinking long term, building strong ties with the natives so when the Fire Nation took over, all the groundwork for a solid relationship would have been set. It made sense, but not to the point that we should be using **our** resources to gain their trust. The only thing we had been gaining out of it was half-true civilian reports of Earth Kingdom movements that half the time turned out to be our own men.

I picket up the first training dummy, or what was left of it, and heaved it over my shoulders. It weighed about 30 pounds. Not too heavy, but certainly not light. I made my way over to the cart that I'd have to pull on my own, but not too far. Only a quarter of a mile back to camp.

 _But wasting resources on the civies? Didn't make sense to me. Not when we needed it far more. We've already starting rationing, and don't get me wrong, I'm used to rationing. Been doing it my whole life, but that kind of shit wouldn't be good for morale, and none of us knew how much longer we'd be here. Iroh was betting on a quick victory. One that would come sooner rather than later._

 _And when we took over the city, then what? We still have our host to feed, and a city full of civilians. A city we'd spent the last 3 months starving to death. What would we feed them on then? Did Chan have some sort of cornucopia of food items distributed amongst his fillet I didn't know about. Were they towing a lush island of fruits and vegetables behind them? How the hell would we feed them?_

I placed the first dummy back and started going back for the second. _Could the General have already made a request for supplies? Was there already a Fire Nation ferry fleet inbound with enough food for the largest city on Earth? Because if Iroh intended on calling for that only after we'd taken the city, well, that'd be a few weeks if not a month of hell, waiting for a fleet that might not even make it._

I picked up the second dummy and headed back to the cart. _We may as well wait for the harvest. That'd be ready sooner than a supply fleet._

I placed down the second dummy and when I turned around for the third, there was no third dummy where it had been on the ground, but rather, Danev standing behind me, shoving me aside to set down the last one on the back of the cart.

"Thanks." I said, wiping the sweat off my brow.

Danev looked at the back of the cart, seeming to take notice of the dummies. I'd wonder if he'd lecture me about how expensive those targets were. It was funny. He came into the Fire Nation only because there was nowhere else to go. He was in it for himself if not what was left of the Hornets, and it showed. He hated orders. He followed them to survive. He hated high command. He listened to their dumbass orders because he'd be executed otherwise, but here, with the Dragon's host, that had changed. I guessed half-decent commanders would do that. Shame 5000 men died because they didn't have one.

"Nice shooting." Was what Danev said instead, nodding his head in approval, a smile growing on his face. "I see you finally got your arm back. How's it feel?"

I shrugged, looking it over, still not used to seeing it free of that forsaken cast, a few shades whiter than its counterpart. "Like its been in a cast for the last 3 months."

He chuckled. "No shit. Look's white as ice."

"Thanks. Appreciate it. I was thinking of holding it over an open flame for a few minutes just to give it some color again."

"What color? Black?"

"Maybe. Better than albino."

"Can't argue there."

"So you came back just to help me load these training dummies? What a gentleman."

"Oh you know me." He said, smiling as he helped me get the cart underway back towards camp. "And they say chivalry is dead."

"Clearly whoever **they** are, have never met you."

He chuckled, clearly noticing the sarcasm, but rolling with it all the same. As friends do.

I interrupted the silence, pushing the conversation somewhere actually applicable, asking "You talk to Lu Ten since the battle?"

He didn't answer for a long second, only saying afterwards "Yep. Just this noon actually."

"Anything interesting? When we going back out there?"

"Armored will be seeing combat in about 3 weeks' time."

"3 weeks? Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. Gotta get ready. It's a big one coming."

"You said armored would be waiting three weeks. Who's waiting less?"

"Nobody. We'll all be seeing combat in 3 weeks. No sooner. No later. Well, unless some dumb civie decides he don't like the Fire Nation hanging out in his back yard anymore."

"Wouldn't qualify that as combat. Damn! 3 weeks. I can't wait that long. Just got the fucking arm back. Have to put it to use, you know?"

"I know, but hey, you get the time to practice."

"Oh yeah. This crap." I said, motioning behind us. "Much easier when they're not shooting back. Just saying."

"I should hope so, but yeah. It's just something you need to accept. Iroh's got a plan now. A good one too."

"Ooh. A good one. I do sure hope you can keep on throwing adjectives without me."

"What do you want?"

"Oh I don't know? To stop teasing me with all this fancy stalling and tell me. What's the plan?"

"Man, you'll know tomorrow. I only have half of it anyway."

"Oh. Well perfect! You tell me half, I'm satisfied, and tomorrow, when I get it all, I can still be surprised! A win-win!"

"Yeah? What do I win?"

"Pff. What do you win? What? Is being the right-hand man to the general's son not enough of a win to you?"

"I'm hardly his right-hand man."

"Bullshit. I don't see him having one on one late-night strategy talks with the other generals. Or are they really strategy talks? I've never seen you with a girl in the slums, Danev. That what this about? You seducing our commander?"

"Oh shut up, Luke."

"Then give me proof."

"Alright. Task force's going into Ba Sing Se. We found a place to sneak in through. We gain the trust of the villagers at a town bordering the wall. Convince them we're there to help. We get in through them, take How's camp from the rear in 3 weeks. You come in. and finish the job."

We were nearing the camp, and there stood a group of around a hundred men waiting for us near the easternmost entrance to the camp. "Danev. You're saying 'we', 'you', and-"

"I'm to lead the task force."

I had figured as much.

"Luke?"

"When?" I asked, dropping the cart onto the ground.

"Today. Now. Luke, let me help you take the cart the rest of the way."

"I'm fine. Why didn't you just say that?"

He shrugged. "Wanted to say it subtly, you know?"

"Well. Great job with that, by the way. So subtle I accused you of seducing Lu Ten." I chuckled. "Shit. How long you say? 3 weeks?"

"Yeah." He said, seeming more relieved than before, chuckling as well. "Shouldn't be too long."

"It's not two months."

"It's not two months." He confirmed.

"So who's going with you? Your platoon?"

"And a few others. Lu Ten is tagging along too. He's to act as an emissary to the town. Gain their trust, but he put me in charge of the mission beyond the wall."

"He really trusts you, doesn't he?"

"I guess so."

"Will it work? This plan?"

"I think it will."

I smiled. "Well. Shit. I guess I'll see you in 3 weeks. We'll meet at How's camp?"

He chuckled, smiling, any irrational fear of this talk having evaporated, at least on the outside, adding "Yeah. I guess so. Oh. And Luke!"

He reached into his belt, pulling out a stylistically ornamented dagger, holster and all, offering it to me.

"What's this?"

"A lucky knife. You'll be charging with the armored head first a fortified camp of Earth Benders thirsty for your blood."

"So a decorative knife will change that?"

"Hey! That knife has survived an incredulous number of explosions and always found its way back to me."

"Really? How many is 'incredulous'?

"Two."

"Ah. I don't know about that, Danev. I may be charging to an undeniable death, but you, my friend, you'll be the first Fire Nation soldier to step foot into Ba Sing Se's inner district since this war began. You will be past the inner wall, in the belly of the beast. I can't help but think you'll need it more."

He smiled. "So you're not taking it?"

"I'll take it once it's survived another explosion. 3 is better than 2."

"He smiled, sliding it back into his belt."

"So it is. SO this is goodbye then."

"I guess it is."

And we hugged. And I held on to him. It would be a shorter amount of time I told myself. I'd see him even sooner than last time.

And as he walked away, I wondered if that really **would** be the case. It all came down to these next few days. One way or another, this war was coming to its end.

 **Long Feng**

" _Stone's Edge."_ The spy's report read. They were on their way.

"Good." I said to myself and nobody else, alone in my face, desk and office alike cluttered in maps, reports, and briefings. And sign of this situation's decay one day at a time.

But now. But now there was nobody left to stand in my way. How was on his suicidal crusade. The Dai Li was mine, the riots were timed to fail the minute How's forces fell and Iroh's morale was crushed. Then, it would just be me, and a city with nobody to owe their lives to save me. Oh. Everything was coming together.

But there were last matters to attend to. "Stone's Edge" I said aloud once more, lest I forget its name. The Dai Li were untrusted. It'd be difficult relaying my attention to that shithole of a town, much less getting them to go through with what I had in mind. No. This would need to be a lot more. Subtle. "But how?"

Then I chuckled. That was the general's wrong move. Poor Iroh sought the love of all outside the walls, but men were sheep. Peasants especially. If you can't become the shepherd, you buy the Shepherd. I didn't need the town. I needed its leader. And I needed gold. Enough gold, and a man will forget any past grievance.

I drafted the letter and readied myself for another trip to the treasury. A perk of having your kingdom's entire army either dead or deployed, the police become the military. My Dai Li now defended the King's treasury lest any half-intelligent nobles and members of the court decide to cut their losses and run.

So that was in place. He'd agree to welcome the soldiers with open arms and keep them there. And when the time came. When the Fire Nation launched their attack, I would launch mine own. How's defense may fall. He me fall as well. If he does, all the better. With the loss of a single man, Iroh's will fall. And being the only thing holding his army upright, they would fall as well, a nice pile of dominoes with ramifications I can only dream of. They didn't concern me however. The Fire Nation would have a field day of the mess I left, but Ba Sing Se would be safe. And with me at its head, the hands controlling those of the King, it would finally be safe. Forever.

And now for one final matter. The report I had kept until the end of my evening. Good old Kaizar. Always there to keep an eye on things.

I read the report:

" _Lake Laogai Report:_

 _5-month check-up. All recruits still under influence. No apparent signs of decay. 2_ _nd_ _Batch total success. All systems functional._

 _Lake Laogai is fully operational."_

I smiled. It was ready. **I** was ready.

 **Danev**

The town was straight ahead of us. A small, sand brown cooperation of buildings ranging from homes to small motels. Sizeable, yet a unit paling in comparison to the likes of Citadel, yet eerily similar all the same. A sense of similarity that seemed to have trouble finding a place within me between fear and confidence.

"There it is." Said Lu Ten, halting his Komodo Rhino beside mine, a mount that had taken me months to master back at camp.

"There it is." I confirmed.

"You ready for this?" he asked.

I swallowed. _Was I? Was this some huge mistake? Did I now sit in front of what would come to be my greatest mistake? I'd made similar mistakes earlier. When I had allied the Hornets with the Fire Nation. I had set my family, everyone I had ever known, down a path of pain and destruction. Into a gang war that would culminate with only two survivors, a mere shadow of what I had intended. Was this just another mistake?_

And as I thought these vile thoughts, Lu Ten patted me on the back, saying "And Here I thought we'd have to make the first move. Here they are?"

And coming out of the village, children in the lead, women not far behind, suspicious men leading the rear, the populace of the village came rushing forward.

And as our men dismounted from their mounts, unloading their beasts of burden and distributing food, water, and medical supplies to those who came rushing forward, being met with smiles, tears of joy, and warm embraces, I put those thoughts aside.

 _No. Back then, I was a killer. I was a ganger. I killed for what I needed. I stole from others. I preyed on the weak to make the strong stronger, but not anymore. I was part of something bigger now._

And so as Lu Ten dismounted, attempting to hold back the tidal wave of children coming to examine his armor, women coming to embrace him, and men coming to give begrudged respect and thanks, I smiled. That old life was behind me. I was somebody else now. Part of something bigger. I didn't prey on the weak anymore. I didn't kill out of selfishness and hatred. I gave to the weak. I protected those unable to protect themselves. That's what being a soldier meant. Nearly a year ago, I resented everybody around me. 6 months ago, it wasn't too different, but now, I saw what it meant to be who I was. And I was proud of it.

I dismounted my rhino, following Lu Ten's moves, and readied myself for the days ahead.


	45. Chapter 43: Endgame: Part 3: Icon

2 Weeks Later

 **Danev**

"How much longer?" I had been sitting here for 3 hours now. The sun had gone from just shining over the inner wall to now being about midway between dawn and midday. I couldn't take this. "Screw this. I have to move."

"Just sit still." Said Lu Ten from where he sat a few feet to my side, a humorous contrast to my stress and anxiety. "They already have your outline. They're just getting the details. You can move your head, relax, just stay where you are. They'll be done soon."

I sat back in my chair. _Why had I agreed to this? It made sense for_ _ **him**_ _to do this, but me? Why was I even here?_ All the same, I leaned back, relaxing, closing my eyes as I allowed the painter to get to work on the details of my face. Thank Raava it wasn't a full-body portrait. We would have missed the attack if that had been the case, but at this rate, well, we'd still have time to get some final relaxation in before the assault began, but that didn't alter the question why I was here? The only reason it had even been brought up was because the local painter had offered it to me for free at the same time, he had offered it to Lu Ten. I guess she would have considered it rude if she had only painted him and not me. _In what way, though? It makes far more sense to just get him and leave me out of it. If only Lu Ten hadn't talked me into it._

"Chin up, please." Asked, or rather, demanded the painter. I begrudgingly did as I was bid, ceding a momentary position of comfort, raising my chin as I probed the back of the chair for a comfortable position to rest my head on.

"Shit. I can't do this."

"Seriously?" asked Lu Ten. "After one portrait and you can't take any more?"

"One portrait is enough, thank you very much." I soon realized how what I just said could have been viewed as frankly 'dickish' to the people actually putting effort into painting me, prompting me to shoot awake at the realization of what I had said, apologizing by saying "No offense."

"Smooth" chuckled Lu Ten from where he sat

"None taken." Said the painter, who maintained a huge grin on his face. "We're just happy to do what we can after all you've done for us."

"It's nothing." Said Lu Ten "We're here to help. You really don't have to do this for us."

"Please" said the woman painter handling Lu Ten's portrait. "We insist."

"Very well." He surrendered. "Thank you."

He was silent for a while, until he spoke again to me, saying "You really shouldn't be complaining. After this war is done, you're going to be going through this kind of stuff every day."

"What do you mean?" I asked, opening an eye.

"I mean, people in high rankings have this kind of stuff happen to them. Especially war heroes."

I scoffed. "War heroes." I repeated after him. "That's rich."

"I'm not kidding. The public will eat this stuff up. Even people in the Earth Kingdom will love you. They won't see you as the guy who tore down their government. They'll see you as the soldier who ended the 95-year war."

"And that kind of position means stuff like this, what? Yearly? Monthly?"

"Weekly."

"Fuck off."

"Not kidding. You should've seen what the media was like when Zuko was born. Even more so when Azula was born. They were like vultures, gathering at every possible moment to capture their likeness. Of course, those were just civies. But when you're in the Royal Family, they do this kind of crap every week pretty much. Whether it's for new royal outfits, growth spurts, public events, you name it."

"Holy hell."

"So yeah. Be thankful you won't be getting that treatment. I admit, the biggest reason I was glad to get away from the capital, even if it meant coming here, was because I could get away from it all. Away for the capital. Army life is far better than all of that."

"I imagine, but you can't say you don't miss the treatment."

"I most certainly can say that. I don't miss it in the slightest. Servants at every corner, offering grapes, massages, acupuncture, hot towels, mo- no, take that back, I do actually miss the hot towels."

"You're a firebender. Heat them yourself."

"It's not the same. I'm telling you, they do something else to those towels that I can't put my finger on."

"An art lost to the ages." I joked.

"You don't say."

And so, soon enough, all was said and done, and we were prompted to stand up and view our separate portraits.

In that moment, I couldn't remember the last time I had looked into a looking glass. It must've been back at Citadel, because when I saw the portrait of myself, I could've sworn they had gotten it mixed and accidentally given me Lu Ten's. It looked nothing like him, but it looked even less like me, or so I thought.

The man I saw in the portrait was no longer the same boy who had been conscripted into an army he despised nearly a year ago. He was older now, scarred, his eyes were different. His hair was longer, his face was covered in dirt that no sponge could get out. Dirt ingrained in the skin. Remains of battles that would stay with me for years if not decades to come.

"Are my sideburns really that long?" Lu Ten commented from where he had received his own portrait. He seemed less shocked than I had. No doubt he had been doing this longer than I had. He had already gone through what I had just experienced. He already knew who his soldier self was.

I, on the other hand, would need time to grow into it.

"How's yours look?" he asked, approaching me.

I showed it to him, unaware as to how I would transcribe my thoughts of it into words. He looked at it, his amusement growing, and said "Damn good, Danev. That's a keeper."

That didn't exactly make me feel better. In some ways, I was hoping he would say "Look's nothing like you." At least then my shock would be justified. Now, though, it was fact, set in stone. I didn't recognize myself anymore.

The painters were already leaving, gathering their materials, brushes, stands, and all, when Lu ten rushed up to them, reaching into the pockets of his uniform, pulling out 4 gold pieces, attempting to pay the two painter who promptly refused him saying "No. No. You've saved us all. It's the least we can do."

"I know. I know, but this isn't payment. It's a tip."

The painters once, twice, thrice more tried to refuse Lu Ten, but when it became obvious they were no match for the resolve of the Commander of Fire Nation forces, they conceded, and accepted Lu Ten's payment.

So Lu Ten rushed back to me, his portrait painted on a sheet of parchment on which he commented, saying "I should send this to my dad. He'll be glad to know the town's in full support of us."

"He's already gotten your reports." I countered, not for any purpose, but solely to make conversation, saying "I doubt a picture of you, no matter how professional, will offer any proof your messages haven't already."

"Alright. Fine. Then it's a gift."

"Ooh boy. Your face on parchment. What a gift." I said, rolling my eyes, being sure to smile so as not to give any shadow of an impression of seriousness.

"Screw off." He laughed. "What'll you do with yours? Send it to that nurse of yours back in Citadel? For here to show you off to all of her friends?"

"I never should have told you about her." I commented. He laughed. On the ride to Stone's Edge, there had been no shortage of time for conversation. That conversation time had been occupied by personal stories on both ends. I had learned about his growing up as a leading member of the royal family, and he in turn, had learned of the Citadel slums, the academy, and my life as a whole. And there had been no shortage of banters. "No." I answered. "I think I'll keep it."

"Oof. That's grim. They have dog tags for that reason, you know."

"Can't piece my face back together with dog tags alone. Nah. Just for the memories, I guess. When this is over, I won't mind looking back on this to remember, ahem, 'THE GLORIOUS CONQUEST OF BA SING SE'." I put all the effort I could into the showman's voice, lowering my voice so as to emphasize the theatrical value of this campaign as a whole. I had no doubt that plays, books, and other forms of media would come to be based on this war. No doubt they'll skip the months of artillery, frostbite, starvation, disease, and worst of all, waiting, but rather focus on the more cinematic moments, such as the fall of the walls and the battles that had come after. I thumbed my lucky knife. _With any luck, today, we'll give the Ember Island Players something to perform. Something good._

"Yeah." Said Lu Ten. "Fair enough. I think I'll send mine over right about now. Got anything more you plan on doing in town?"

"Nothing I can think of at the top of my head. Are we gonna be eating before or after the battle?"

"After. The men'll be pissed, but better to enter battle not loaded with food. I could have them eat an early lunch, but that's not such a good idea either."

"Then I have no reason to stick around. The mayor already knows when to open the gate for us and let us through?"

"Yep. High noon. Exact."

"Not bad. Not bad. Shouldn't be too hot either, what with the clouds."

"And the fact it's almost autumn."

"That too. So yeah. I'm done here. We heading back to camp?"

"Yep. I'll mail this, we'll go over the plan, and you'll relay it to your platoon."

"Sounds good. Want to start briefing me on the way back?"

"Nah. It'll be easier with the map. And it's pretty simple. We just need to time it right. The Crimson Army's assault will be at around 1400, so we need to make sure we leave on time and get to the enemy's position no sooner and no later. We'll go over it at camp, deal?"

"Deal."

So the way back to camp was mostly silent. He continued to look at his portrait as I tried to ignore it as much as possible. I still couldn't believe that was me on that parchment. It looked nothing like Danev of the slums. The muscle who had guarded the Hive from uninvited guests. The executioner who had repaired leaks. The enforcer who had fought Riu's wars. I wasn't that kid anymore. I was Lieutenant Danev, Commander of the 31st platoon, leader of our mission beyond the wall. In the slums, I had had no hope of a future. I was destined to die in a puddle of my own spit, vomit, and blood by one happenstance or another, but I wasn't. I was here now. I had been given a chance. I had survived Citadel. I had survived the Academy. I had survived the 5th Corps. And now here I was, with one final mission to survive. Except. It wasn't about survival anymore. Survival was the past. I wasn't some mere survivor. I was something more now. I was a soldier. A Warrior. And I had a job to do.

And so, soon enough, I was in Lu Ten's tent, guarded by my two most-trusted men who Lu Ten had assigned me to designate. The camp was a ways away from the village, which made it something of a bothersome walk every day, but despite the fact the townspeople had been eager to offer us housing, Lu ten had turned it down, stating we didn't desire to intrude upon them.

As the Icon of the Nation he had been sent to represent, he was doing a damn good job. Today was just further proof of that, but the thing about Lu Ten was, well, it was no act. I had spent over a decade in Citadel watching Zar'un parade around in hi fancy uniform, spouting out propaganda left and right, acting the righteous Commander, but everyone could see past it. He was a damn fine actor, but there was something about the way a liar held himself, something you learned to observe in Citadel, or risk getting your throat cut, but Lu Ten, he was no actor, he was no liar, he was an Icon. The perfect symbol of the Fire Nation not for what it was, but what it could be.

"Tell me how this sounds." He said to me after he had finished the message he was writing aside his head on the parchment to be delivered to his father. He cleared his throat, following it up by saying "To General Iroh:" When he saw my look, he defended himself, saying "What?" I have to keep it formal. We're in the middle of a war!"

"Yeah." I said "But you know, try to make sound more personal. This is the last thing he's going to get from you before both of you head of to war. Send him off with something positive."

"Yeah. Alright. Fine. I'll just add something to the end here." And so he scribbled a few more characters. His penmanship was more than decent, easy to comprehend, but never nearing simplistic. So when he had finished, I was making out the words little by little, but decided to stop myself so as to hear it in his words for the first time as he once again cleared his throat, and said, but more softly and considerate this time "To General Iroh: See you after we win the war. Your loyal son Lu Ten."

He looked at me where I was standing across from where he was sitting the desk between us and asked "So how was it. You think he'll like it?"

"It's great. Your father's going to be happy to get it."

"I hope so." He said standing up. "I still need to find a way to thank him. Guess it'll be easier in person."

"Thank him? What for?"

"For everything, I guess. For raising me alone ever since mom died, always being with me, training me, teaching me, mentoring me, and bringing me along to fight alongside him. Everything I know, I learned from him. I wouldn't have made it nearly this far without him."

"Then thank him by winning this city for him. Thank him by doing as your letter says and winning this war."

He stood there, looking to the ground, grim of expression, thinking, until his frown shifted to a smile and he said, "Sounds good to me." He promptly called in his steward who collected the message and left the tent to deliver it. His scribe was barely through the door when Lu Ten had already placed 3 maps on the table along with 4 reports, and orders directly from General Iroh.

"So." He said. "Let's get started."

He pointed at the map of Ba Sing Se's outer ring, pointing to a small spot marked by a hand drawn Fire Nation emblem. Well drawn at that.

"We are here. 1 kilometer away from Stone's Edge. That's a 10-minute march at most. Nothing to be particularly worried about. We get to Stone's Edge." He said, moving his finger along the map to the small area marked by a hand drawn square, one side more squiggled than the other, the last side, obviously mucked up by an uncomfortable position. _Why am I thinking about this?_

"Once we're here, Stone's Edge mayor will open the gate for us. It's no means as large as the outer gates, but it's enough for us to march through in a 10 by 10 formation. That's where timing gets difficult." He pointed now to the camp of the Crimson Army, marked by a far larger Fire Nation emblem, marking our true Headquarters of the upcoming invasion. "Our march 2 weeks ago was 8 hours, so usually, you would expect we'd leave far sooner to get to How's camp, but that raises certain concerns, some of which being exposed for too long, but I expect we'll be fully able to pull this off in two hours."

"Right." I said, making sure I was actually being useful rather than just standing around as he handled the logistics. "We're travelling along a smaller circumference and without any pack animals to worry about. So in a forced march, keeping good pace, yeah, we could definitely manage that in under 2 hours."

"I'm of the same mind. If by some chance we're being spied on at Stone's Edge, our exit will lead them to believe the main attack will be later than expected, so when it comes, they would have been too busy readying for us, but then again, that's **if** they're spying on us. Big 'if', but one we could use to our advantage all the same."

"Pays to be prepared."

"Exactly."

He now discarded of the map of Ba Sing Se's outer district and now pointed to where a line had been drawn on a map of the inner ring so generously provided to us by some eager-to-help citizens of Stone's Edge. Lu Ten continued his briefing, saying "Once we leave Stone's Edge, we'll have to be careful to stay secluded in the inner ring. There are many factors we have to take into consideration. The riots, unfortunately, have been dying down as of late despite attempts to bring them supplies. All the same, the inner ring is a mess. Expect stragglers and civilians asking for handouts. Tell your men not to let anyone get distracted. We're on a tight time frame. We can help the civies once this is over."

"Agreed."

"And tell your men to stay away from the bodies. In times of rioting like this, disease loves to spread. There's been rumors of the Dai Li using biological warfare against the protestors, poisoning food and giving it to the rioters. Disgusting."

"I'll say."

"So yeah. Stay away from the bodies. We'll let our doctors take care of any sick and injured once this war is over, but today, we can't let sentiment get in the way. We'll be running on a tight time-frame, so just tell your men to let nothing distract them."

"Oh don't worry. This lot, many of them are from Citadel. Morality isn't exactly big for them."

"In that case, tell them that there'll be no looting."

"They won't like that."

"Convince them."

"Permission to promise a pay raise?"

"Granted. Odds are they'll all be commendated one way or another. Just say what you have to in order to keep them in line. Understood?

"Understood sir!"

"Good. Tell them what I've said then. We leave for Stone's Edge at 1145. They'll have the rest of the morning to do as they please."

"Yes sir."

"And Danev? One last thing."

I turned around before I could close the flap of the tent behind me, asking "Yeah?"

"I can't have you leading 100 plus men as a lieutenant. Command just doesn't work that way."

 _What is this? Am I being replaced?_

"So only way I can see this working is if you're no longer a lieutenant." He reached into his pocket to grab something as he continued, saying "I was planning on doing this after the battle, but hell, may as well now."

And he set the new rank insignia, that of a captain, on the map in front of me, sitting directly atop where the Dragon's Camp was marked. "Congratulations, Captain, your company awaits. And please, make up a clever name for them. Numbers can get really confusing at times. Good luck out there, Danev."

"I-You-No."

"Yes."

I cautiously moved to pick it up, fearing a trick of some sots despite the fact everything I knew about him pointed to him being serious, and I looked at that new insignia for what felt like hours until I managed to finally cease my incessant blubbering and spit out a measly "I don't know what to say."

"Say 'Thank you, sir.' And 'Good luck to you too.'"

"Uh. Th-Thank you, sir. Good luck to you too. We're counting on you."

So I managed to leave despite nearly tripping over myself about 5 times on the way out, the flap of the tent feeling ten times heavier. The guards saluted me as I walked past and I could have sworn I heard one say "Congratulations, sir.", but I was too dazed to even make a pathetic attempt at a reply.

And so I sat in my tent for about 10 minutes, eyeing that insignia, not yet knowing who to ask to replace my current insignia parading the rank of "Lieutenant" that I had been so proud of up to this moment. That wait ended when I had remembered right then and there, I had a speech to make.

My steward was in the tent the second I summoned him, a quick and loyal 12-year-old, companion to the squire accompanying Lu Ten, the supposed heir to a noble in the Fire Nation. How else could one get their child in such a high place at the side of the Fire Nation's Commander? And so the younger of the companions, not a royal, but a mere child, stood in front of me, awaiting his commands until I said, "Summon the camp to gather for a briefing." Normally, a lieutenant, hell, especially a captain, would have summoned his sergeants to give them the orders to relay to the troops, but I found doing it directly to be far more efficient, but then again, I guess that was meant to be one of the perks of promotion. The higher up you got the less people you had to talk to. Well, it'd be a tough habit for me to break, speaking to the troops at once.

And as my steward turned to leave, already unhooking the horn from his belt, I said "And once that's done, mind sewing this to my pauldron?"

He nodded and left, and soon enough, the camp was filled with the noise of a single blast from the war horn. It reminded me of the bells in Citadel. 1 for recruitment, 2 for execution, and 3 for attack, though I had never heard the latter before in my life. For better or worse. Here though, the horn worked differently. 1 blast meant riders returning, 2 blasts meant we were under attack, and the third meant protocol cinder, the last resort for Fire Nation camps, to burn everything to the ground, leaving nothing for the enemy. Hopefully, much like the ominous 3rd gong, I'd never hear it.

And so I was out of my tent, newly composed, and before I knew it, I was behind the makeshift podium which was just an elevated counter in the center of the camp courtyard in a position where 100 people could just barely wait in front, and they were all waiting for me.

I wasn't here to make a speech. That honor would fall to Lu Ten when the time came for our march. I was here for one thing only. I was here for the plan. A plan I couldn't misinterpret or miscommunicate. A plan not for a simple skirmish, but the end of the war. I was here to make it plain, make it simple, and make it right.

"Men!" I yelled, making sure the volume of my voice was right for the moment. "You know what's going down. We end the war today. We do this fast. And we do this right. We leave at 1145. You will leave the camp behind. You were told to bring along no personal belongings before you left the Dragon's Camp. This is why. We'll be travelling light. We get to Stone's Edge by 1200. From there, we enter Ba Sing Se's inner ring, and we will march right up General How's ass. But to ensure we catch him by surprise, we will move quick, and we will move right. We will not be distracted. I know how good-hearted you all are. Epitomes of human goodness."

That earned a few chuckles from the crowd.

"But there will be no helping the citizenry. We can save such acts of nobility until after the war is done. And I know there are none of you here, that none of you would ever even think of doing this, but there will be no looting. None at all, sorry to say. I'll tell you this though, you lot will be the ones responsible for destroying this fucking city's government. You will be the idiots to bring down the Earth Kingdom. If that doesn't earn you a pay raise, well, I don't know what will. So behave well, and come on, let's be honest, you ain't gonna be finding any good loot out there anyway. It's the slums for fuck's sake. You want to loot, save it until we get to How's Camp. Once we're there, the world is free for the taking. We will march through their ass, into their organs, and fuck everything up we find. We will burn their tents, slaughter their soldiers, destroy their weapons, their food, their camps. We will leave nothing behind but ash and cinder. And by the time we're done, we will be the heroes of the Fire Nation!

And the newly named "Cinder Company" roared in approval as they patted each other on the backs, shot blasts of fire into the air, and cheered "Cinder! Cinder! Cinder!"

And I knew in that moment. We were going to win.

So 1 and a half hours later, we were ready.

We stood, in a 10 by 10 formation, Lu Ten at our front, the wall a kilometer away. The second this march started, the final battle began for us. It all culminated here, one way or another.

None of us were mounted. Lu Ten had insisted we march alongside the men, that neither of us appear superior to them. And as it turned out, it was the morale boost they needed.

All the same, I bore my newly earned markings of Captain on my pauldron. I was proud of it, but here, I was just another soldier. Rank didn't matter anymore. In front of me, there were two new lieutenants, 2 new staff sergeants, but all of them, including me, soldiers ready and willing to end this war.

So when Lu Ten never even left his spot amongst his troops to make his speech. He remained at the front, but only by the courtesy of the soldiers who had moved back for him. He had no higher ground, he was no superior to us in that moment. He was, in every sense, one of us. He really was the symbol of the Fire Nation that we all needed in that moment.

And so it was by sheer respect that we moved out of his way, forming a circle around him, breaking formation. Some knelt, some sat, more saluted. We did as we pleased, but in one way or another, everybody showed their respect for the man that would lead us to victory.

"Friends!" He called. "For the last two years, we've woken up to the sight of these horrendous walls. For the last two years, we've fallen asleep with these walls as the last thing we've seen at night. For the last two years, our days were cut short by the walls that hid the sun from us, the walls that hid tomorrow away from us, in fear of what it would mean for us. In fear of the future."

"Those walls are no different from those insides. Stubborn, strong, resilient, but frightened, ignorant, and hateful. Everyday, they try to bring the sun down as quickly as possible because they know the day didn't favor them. They know that the sooner night comes, the sooner they can live in an ignorant bliss of the future waiting directly in front of them. Every night, they try to hold the sun down as long as possible because they know tomorrow will bring them no solace but will rather bring us a step closer to victory."

"Those doing this, are not the men, women, and children cowering behind those walls, the ones trying to overthrow a tyrannical ruler kept afloat by a corrupt police force that trades morality for obedience and power, working in the shadows for fear of the sun that will bring their crimes to light."

"The citizens of Ba Sing Se are not our enemy. As you can see from what we've been doing these last few months, they are our allies. They want nothing more than the peace they trust us to bring. So we cannot disappoint."

"We leave now for the future, to tear down the shroud that blocks the sun from us, from the frightened devil that attempts to hide the light. That is what we are fighting for. The future. A future of peace and prosperity. And no wall will keep us out! We've done it before! And we will do it again!"

"They believe their cause to be just because that's what their puppet master has told them! But we believe in our cause not because a man sitting on a throne thousands of miles away told us so, but because we have seen it for ourselves! We have seen the horrors of this war. We have witnessed the atrocities of our enemies, but we stand here still because our cause is more just."

"They are stubborn. They hide behind their walls, trusting them to defend them from the future. The fight to the last man in the name of an ignorant king, but we are more stubborn. Because we have stood here still, amidst everything, not in the name of a single ruler, but for a future we must fight for."

"So no matter what is thrown at us, we will survive! And we. Will. Fight! The sun is up now, gentlemen. The Earth Kingdom can hide it no more for it stand directly above us, everlasting, ever-bright, infinite, much like us. We may fall today, but much like the sun, we will rise again, whether be it on the battlefield, or in the memories of those who transcend us. Firebenders derive their power from the sun, and I know there are those of you who haven't been touched by the sun as others have, but today, that makes no difference. It makes no difference. Bender or not. You, we, are all Fire Nation."

"The sun stands high, men. The day is ours for the taking! Will you take it with me?!"

I by no means excluded myself from the roar of affirmation that followed. What could I say? It was a good speech. And soon enough, the chant emerged. "The Sun is with us! For the Fire Nation! For the Future!"

The chant lasted us the entire march to Stone's Edge. It only died down when Lu Ten raised his hand and we stood in organized silence. We were directly in front of the gate. A major entrance into the inner district, not as large as the outer gates, but by no means unimpressive.

The gates rattled open as the portcullis made is ascent, and I found myself thinking of an all-too-similar day.

The streets were empty. Where was everyone? They must have known we were here. Not even a death man could have ignored our approach. The ground shook beneath us as we moved, but the streets were empty.

"Where is everyone?" I asked Lu Ten who was standing next to me, waiting patiently for the gate to finish its movement, as though he would know any better than I would.

"I don't know."

I looked around, and spotted a window's shutters closing, and Luke was back next to me. He was younger. Much younger. _Luke? What are you doing here?_

I moved my mouth, but no words escaped. I turned to my right where Lu Ten should have been to ask what the hell was happening, but he wasn't there. In his stead was, Riu? _No. Riu. You're dead. You were killed back in Citadel._

Then we were marching forward. We passed beneath Citadel's gates. _No. Not Citadel. We didn't march through Citadel's gates. We were dragged. Carried._

The shadow moved behind us as our marched continued. We were past Citadel's portcullis. And I saw something pass on a roof. _Oh. There they are. The town's not abandoned after all. They're watching. We're fine._

Then I heard the rush of footsteps behind me, and I turned around. _Reek? The kid from the Rats. He's here too?_

"The fuck are you doing here, Reek?" Luke called from my left. _No. No. This already happened. It was all of us, The Hornets. We were entering Citadel, and._

"Lu Ten!" I yelled. "It's a trap!"

And like a ten-ton weight, the gate shut behind me. Luke disappeared. Riu became Lu Ten. And Reek became a random kid who was grabbed by a lone stone hand and yanked into an alleyway. It was all too surreal.

I turned around, and the gate was down. Our company severed in two, a few literally, some poor bastards caught underneath the gate.

A few men on our end rushed to try and open it with the aid of others on the other side when the attack began.

14 men on our side were brought down in the span of 10 seconds from arrows flying seemingly straight from the sky. Those still standing took out their own weapons, and some being firebenders, readied themselves against an invisible attacker. And it began.

A hole above us, within the wall, opened, and a pile of rocks came down, catching 3 men beneath it. 1 more would have been caught under had Lu Ten not pushed him out of the way. The rocks landed inches in front of him, which he ignored, to yell to the men trapped on the other side to "Run! Get out of here."

I didn't stay facing our allies to see if they did indeed run. We were in the open, our only escape blocked, and the battle began.

Arrows came flying out from abandoned homes. The firebenders took cover in the alcoves offered by the gate where any survivors were now huddled and fired blasts into the building not for accuracy, but sheer destruction, aiming at support beams, bringing down the buildings entirely, Earth Kingdom soldiers with them, but they weren't wearing Earth Kingdom Army uniforms. It was a darker green. _No._

"Dai Li!" Lu Ten yelled. "Stay in cover. Target the buildings' supports. Bring them down and create a smoke cover. We'll use it as a screen to move into better cover."

"Yes sir!" were the unanimous cries as the remaining firebenders took their targets, doing as they were bid, bringing down buildings, occupied by the enemy or not, creating a screen of smoke and dust for the debris until the entire street was covered.

"Now's our only chance!" Lu Ten yelled. "Follow me!"

And I snapped out of it. I was no longer dazed. I picked up the crossbow on the ground near me that had belonged to some now passed ally of mine as well as his pack of bolts. And we ran into the smokescreen. 2 more Fire Nation soldiers got hit by flying projectiles which I couldn't tell to be arrows, knives, or perhaps shards of earth. All the same, they went down, and I turned to find the two Dai Li agents huddled against the walls readying for a second attack. I sent a bolt into the first one's head, threw my bow at the second, and unsheathed my sword to slice the second across the throat, sending him to the ground.

I rejoined my unit, now missing 3 more men who had been killed by a newly shadowed enemy. I was wasting no time thinking what the hell was happening, just that we were in the thick of it, and we had to get the hell out. And as always, Lu Ten was there, fully composed and in the moment. "Move along the alleyway. Building to building. Move quickly. Don't wait up for anyone. Zoni, Thez, cover our rears. Stay in cover and make sure none come from behind us. Rest of you, cover to cover. Watch the roofs. Go!"

And we moved through the alleyway, cover to cover as ordered, watching the roofs. I was now deprived of a ranged weapon and ran, mortified I wasn't a firebender as the firebenders and archers picked off the agents on the roof one by one as we took casualties of our own."

But as our numbers diminished, theirs grew to the point we were holed up in buildings. I could see the bodies of our rearguard behind me, slumped on the ground. I had no idea where Lu Ten was. The Dai Li behind us were kept at bay only by the firebenders covering the alley as best they could from where they were hiding. It was when one of them took a quarrel through the eye that I knew I had to act.

I looked around the building where I was cowering with 7 other soldiers, and found it, a stairway.

I climbed up it, got to the second floor, and found the window. I was out of it before I could even consider the stupidity of my action. I grabbed onto the ledge of the roof opposite the building where I had been mere seconds ago, and shambled up, and just like that, sword in hand, was face to face with an army of Dai Li. I didn't waste a second.

I shoved my sword into the nearest one and pivoted his still bleeding body to his own men whose weapons collided against his back. AI charged, using him as a human shield, dislodged my sword from his stomach, and sent him colliding into the closest assailant, sending him off the roof as I turned to cut the chest of the agent to my left, sending him to the ground. I was without cover now but wasted no moment as the nearest agent summoned an earth hand from the ground. I, somehow, managed to match its trajectory with my sword and found myself cutting clean through it, sending shards of earth around me as I brought my sword back around and cut clean through his right arm and across his heart, sending him down, dead instantly.

At this point, the men on the ground had seen their opening, and had left cover and were picking off the attackers on the roof who were now too busy with me. They came down like flies.

But it wasn't nearly over. I saw a pillar of earth move to my left where and entire street block had been raised to my level, occupied by 20 agents, quickly approaching.

I dropped to the ground, just barely avoiding a disk of earth that went flying above me, crashing into the inner wall.

I rolled off the roof, landing 2 stories down onto ground level to see the opportunity I provided had been seized.

3 more of ours were dead, but more Dai Li lay motionless. Our rear had been secured and I saw Lu Ten ahead removing his sword from the chest of another agent. He turned back around, face soaked in blood, unsurprisingly so as I imagined we all looked no different. "Zoni! Blow a hole in that building and get us a smoke screen."

"Zoni's dead, sir."

"Somebody then!"

A firebender came up in the dead man's stead and launched a blast of fire I imagined was fueled by fear alone, and blew a hole in the building opposite us, and soon, dust encased that street too. "Move! For the alley!"

We moved, rushing towards it. 3 men made it to the alley when the earth raised itself and they were trapped beyond, their screams implying a lack of success. The alley was blocked off.

I turned and saw the benders, but they were brought down by arrows and blasts of fire before they could make their next play. We couldn't go back. We had lost 2 more men at our rear, so the only way was forward, nearer the center of Ba Sing Se, but there was no other choice. We ran.

And like a magician's trick of illusion, the smoke behind us disappeared, and in its stead stood a line of 10 Dai Li, single filed, who in one synchronized motion, made their attack. 7 allies went down, and no counterattack could be launched as the Dai Li were swift replaced by the same smokescreen once again.

I looked around us. It wasn't good. There were, what, 9 of us left? Every street led to this spot. We were in a town square. And suddenly, every street was blocked by rising walls in every cardinal direction, and at the top of every stood 5 agents, all facing down.

Lu Ten wasted no time, he turned to the nearest wall to his left, and fired a blast of fire so big my vision went white. The wall came tumbling down, debris in its place as well as pieces of fallen agents. He was quick, but not quick enough. Our numbers were now whittled down to 4 before we could get out of that square.

The last 2 men in our squad, both fortunately firebenders, turned to cover our rear, but it quickly disappeared in a newly erected wall, blocking any way back. We were in no alleyway, but a civilian street, plenty of room on each side, totally exposed.

"Get into that building!" Lu Ten yelled, pointing at the nearest shop. And it quickly collapsed to the ground, its earthen structure suddenly reduced to dust, 10 shadowed agents in its place. Lu Ten fired, and they dispersed like fish around a hand entering the water.

From above us, more arrows came down and Lu ten turned to fire, taking out around 2 on the roofs, our firebenders doing likewise. So 2 focused on the roofs while me and another firebender focused on the ground. They didn't come through street or building, no, they came through the ground.

They would rise, fire, then retreat back into the ground.

I did what I had to. I bloodied my blade. There was no denying that. And when the seventh Dai Li slid off my blade and fell to the ground, ignoring the holes in my body, the arrows sticking out of me, and the cuts across my body, I stayed standing. It was just me and Lu Ten now.

I don't know how, but we had managed to enter an alley. I couldn't even remember how we got there, but soon enough, another man was sliding off my blade. I didn't even know if he was Dai Li. He sure looked it.

Lu Ten shot above me from where I had just left a shop, closing the exit off to Dai Li, not that it would keep the earth benders at bay for long, but it was something. So we were trapped in that alley, both of us bleeding out, running on adrenaline alone.

Then the shadows appeared, and the sun itself disappeared.

Like blades of grass, the Dai Li cluttered the rooftops, and jumped down in droves. And we fought.

I felt the fire to my back as Lu ten's back was to mine. I could feel the blasts of fire behind me as I cut at the those in front of me, knocking projectiles aside, severing flesh and bone, removing limbs as I could hear only the faint rumble of screams behind me as Lu Ten set fire to the alleyway, covering our rear, and he was facing my direction now, meaning it was my turn to take the side he had just been covering.

And what I saw was a street of fire, Dai Li still fighting, ablaze. I was fighting hell itself in that moments, against the fire as I cut through burning opponents who were still putting up a fighting, offering them a mercy if anything, ending their pain and suffering then and there.

I heard and felt the fire behind me as Lu Ten set fire to the other street, soon pivoting to clear the roofs. I Heard his call for me to get down, and I did so, crouching to the ground as the roofs erupted into flames and Dai Li fled back into the darkness.

But then, the Fire stopped.

I felt the heat die away instantly. Fire stopped flying through the air and the fire that had encompassed this entire street square, instantly died away.

I turned around as if to ask why he stopped, and of course, he wasn't there. In his place stood Janick, giving me that same smile he did when he killed Riu in front of me, but this time, I didn't wait, I didn't hold back. I didn't let him get his shot on me. I lunged forward, and plunged my sword into his heart, and he was gone, replaced by a damn Dai Li agent.

He stood still, my sword through his heart, and fell with such force my sword went with him.

And I was standing there. Alone. Unarmed. Fires dying around me.

I looked around. I was surrounded by bodies. Bodies of men I didn't recognize. All but one of them. I couldn't even recognize him. His body was nearly gone, but even through all that blood and damage, you could still recognize his face. And somehow, that made it all the worse.

And I fell onto my knees. The world was dark again. The sun was gone, hidden somewhere by either the walls, the dust, or the hundreds of Dai Li agents that stood atop their buildings, looking down on me, dropping to street level with me.

One approached me. I had no idea who he was, but in that moment, it didn't matter. I knew what lay ahead. The same thing that had happened to everybody else. And I wouldn't exit this world without taking one more person with me. So as he knelt down, crafting earthen cuffs to place around me, I shoved my lucky knife into his throat.

It struck gold, one final proof of good fortune, but eventually, for even the luckiest of men or items, luck always ran out. A sad last thought


	46. Chapter 44: Endgame: Part 4: Massacre

**Luke**

The whole world burned around me. The heat came at me in droves as particularly flammable kindling among the remains of the town were sparked and promptly ignited. The screams had all stopped by then. In fact, they had stopped long ago. Not that I had even heard them in the first place. I couldn't listen to it. I couldn't.

I was on the ground, kneeling, as sparks floated off in the air around me, travelling with the breeze away from my handiwork into the open sky.

I wondered who had been the last one to scream. I knew who the first had been. I saw her myself.

I had only one question on my mind. _What had I done?_

/

I still remembered that morning. _Or had it been the morning before?_ I couldn't remember. Everyone was excited. Everyone was ready. The war was coming to its end.

I had spent the morning training, firing at targets, killing dummies, shooting target balloons out of the sky. I didn't drink. I didn't celebrate ahead of time. I had no friends to pass the time with, so I readied myself for the battle ahead, because I hadn't forgotten what most of the 5th army had: the war wasn't over yet.

It wouldn't be over until the last Earth Bender was dead.

I took that sentiment with me when I gathered my gear from my squad's tent. I held it as I put on my armor, clasping the armor plates over the shirt and pants underneath, clasping them together, tightening them, ensuring everything was on perfectly. It all felt right.

I sheathed my sword into my belt, put on my fingerless gloves to allow firebending, and lastly, I put on my helmet. And the next second, I was facing the Earth Kingdom army, not half a kilometer away.

I saw the walls beyond them, the last obstacle before victory, and knew that soon, they'd not be standing anymore.

I saw the Earth Kingdom fortress ahead of us and could already see the Fire Nation banners flying in the wind above burnt structures, Fire Nation soldiers traversing the trenches, but only a handful, as the main force was securing the city proper.

I saw in my tank then, alongside a crew without names as I hadn't bothered to remember them. Names slowed me down. Names assigned value. Value made me forget the mission. Names had slowed me down with Gan and Gi Gu. They slowed me down with Iron Fire, but they wouldn't slow me down now. No obstacles left. No loose ends. Just 1 kilometer between me and victory, nothing left to hold me back.

And 2:00 was struck. I heard the whistle. And we charged.

A tidal wave of tanks rolled over the once green farmland of the outer district, trampling over corpses of no man's land and other gifts left for us, disabling mines, braving mud that once would have stopped the entire advance, crushing barbed wire, all of it.

The Earth Kingdom artillery came down, but like even the fiercest of storms, it failed to stop us.

There was no disillusionment about what lay ahead. The men may have been celebrating in their trenches back at camp, but now, on the field, there was no confusing the danger ahead.

The Earth Kingdom camp, no more so a fortress, had laid down its defenses to attempt to launch as many killing blows against the armored assault as possible, but when they failed to stop our advance, they raised their earthen walls, and held.

We had our objectives. We knew what to do. My squad knew their role, as did the others, so we stayed back. When I had heard the orders from my Staff Sergeant, I had braved the thought of risking insubordination to object, but knew, having a clear understanding of my squad, that it would work out. Iroh would have been a fool to leave our squad out of the fighting. And he was no fool.

So we stayed back as a double line of Fire Nation tanks made complete semicircles of the Earth Kingdom camp that was backed against the inner wall, using it as at least one impenetrable defense, or so they thought.

We had our objective of course, to break through their defenses. And we would do it, though with many losses. That wasn't the plan, however, for even we had a few tricks up our sleeves. They're rear wall wasn't the impenetrable defense they thought it, for soon enough, any minute now, 100 trained Fire Nation soldiers alongside the Prince himself would break through it and give us the diversion needed to break through the Earth Kingdom defenses with minimum casualties, and finally take this camp, and this forsaken city.

But we continued on our own, we held back, waiting for an opening in their defenses, even the slightest sign of one. I watched their walls, measuring the odds of success of an attempt to blast through with sheer force, but thought the better. Brute force would get us killed before the fighting even began, but even the strongest of defenses had a weakness, and I saw it.

The Earth Benders, sadly, weren't nearly stupid enough to keep their walls stationary. They had them shifting and overlapping each other like a deck of cards being shuffled. They no doubt had the bulk of their benders focusing on keeping the wall intact. Which would be why Danev and Lu Ten would be more needed than ever. They're intervention would either serve as a distraction for the Earth Benders, giving us a chance to break through, or as a knife in the back. Either way, so long as those defenses came down, and we got our chance to fight, I'd be happy.

But it was useless to wait for somebody else to do the job for you. We had prepared for this stalemate to last 15 minutes at most, it was reaching 10 now, but I saw an opening. An we had our orders from our commanders: "You see an opening, you take it."

And I saw it. Like the deck of cards they were, there was the point where the walls lost their double layered characteristic, where the wall in the back became revealed, one unfortified and undefended. I had the timing. We had this.

I crouched down into the tank to relay my findings to an unnamed driver and co-pilot. "Opening, between the layers, every 2 and a half seconds."

There was no questioning what I had seen. I had proved myself enough in these last few weeks. They knew my capabilities, and I knew theirs. There was no questioning what could be done. So we charged. I closed the lid of my tank, preparing for the upcoming barrage and earth and debris, and took my target, focusing on that one single spot on the wall, counting, waiting. Open, closed, closed, closed, open, closed, closed, closed.

And we were 5 feet away when it became exposed, but it made no difference. I had half a second to fire and took it. And the portion of the wall crumbled. With no wall in the back to support the front layers, a portion of the wall spanning at least 30 feet collapsed, and the battle began.

We were through, the Earth Kingdom army in plain sight. And so we fought. Now past the wall, I emerged from the seclusion of the turret, trusting myself to be able to deflect and destroy incoming projectiles. And so I did. I fired a stream of fire at the ex-wall managers who had been gathered in a tight rank and file formation behind the walls, maintaining it and keeping it shifting until we had come through. I directed the stream of fire to my right, catching at least 7 Earth Benders within it, sending them burning to the ground as the rest broke formation and backed up, seeking to escape the spew of fire, and rightly so, but it wouldn't save them.

I fired blasts of fire towards them, one after another, shifting from target to target, not waiting to see if my shots hit gold or not. Our tank moved along, past the line of Earth Benders, and into the deeper portions of their camp where non bending soldiers had assembled and were marking a concentrated effort to destroy our tanks. I could see their artillery in the rear of their camp shifting to redirect their focus on us. _Good. We have everyone's attention._ _Now just for Danev and Lu Ten to come in and end this, but until then, we have some fighting to do._

We were about 50 feet from the wall when an earth disk hit us from behind in the rear of the tank, sending us spinning, facing more towards the right towards our attackers, giving me a perfect angle to fire, until my shot was ruined by another earth disk hitting us in the front of the tank, smaller, but far deadlier, penetrating through the steel layers of the tank, absolutely cutting through its left side.

The blast had knocked me to the ground of the tank, but it was nothing that would stop me. I had seen the other Fire Nation tanks entering the camp. There were plenty of us. We would win this. I got on my feet, ensuring my sword was still clasped to my side, and I stumbled past the fires growing in the tank, past the crushed and burning corpses of the rest of my crew, and out of the entry wound of the tank.

And what I saw in front of me was nothing short of pure chaos and hell. And it was glorious. I unsheathed my sword, clutching it in my right hand, and entered the fray.

Tanks rolled past me in all directions, coming from the breach in the wall as Earth Kingdom soldiers were dispersed and cut down systematically. I walked past pieces of what had once been my tank, wondering if anyone else in my unit had survived, pushing back any semblance of care instantly, and focusing on the task at hand.

I walked, headed straight towards the center of the Earth Kingdom camp, past the drift track my tank had taken when it was hit, noting the ground torn beneath it and sent into the air, colliding into one or two Earth Kingdom soldiers in the process, both of whom were on the ground, attempting to stand to no effect. I walked past them. I had no time for the injured.

I heard the soldier to my right before I saw him. I turned, dodged his axe which he had sent towards me in a downwards arc, and cut at him in a sideways cut, entering his abdomen and leaving through his back, cutting a chunk out of his torso and sending him to the ground, nearly in two pieces save for a thread of flesh and bone keeping him together, though it'd do him no good.

I kept on walking, dodging an earth desk sent towards me from my front left, not caring where it hit once it went beyond me. I turned my left hand into a fist, and, aiming it towards him, shot a constant beam of fire that culminated in the combustion of his body, sending him to the ground, writhing in pain as I stopped the beam of fire to leave him to his fate. I had to conserve my energy. The real fighting was yet to come.

2 Earth Kingdom soldiers who had been attempting to stand from where they were on the ground, likely injured or stunned in an earlier attack, grasped their weapons and charged towards me. The first, a spearman, took one of my blasts of fire to the leg. The force alone was enough to bend his leg in the wrong direction. The rest was child's play as I dug my sword into his neck, grabbed his spear in my left hand, plucking it from his weakened grasp, and shoved it into the stomach of his approaching comrade who dropped his sword upon the entry of the spear into his abdomen and dropped limp, only being kept off the ground by the spear, which I promptly released, freeing my sword from the first soldier's corpse and continuing on.

I looked ahead, and I could see it: the inner gate. _Why is it still closed?_

I shook my head, not caring to worry about it, and carried on. No new tanks were passing me? _Where are they?_ I turned around. The wall had closed behind me. _Why were any of those Earth Benders still alive. Why hadn't they been killed yet?_ It didn't matter. I would have to do it.

I turned around, ignoring my warpath towards the wall, and headed towards the new line of Earth Benders forming, and when I was in range, with their backs turned, I took my first shot, and sent a kick of fire that grew in diameter as it approached them. 10 of the nearest benders went down until the rest were alerted and enabled to turn on me, forming a barricade of Earth blocking my advance. _Cowards. But it wouldn't stop me._

I readied myself to fire a blast large enough to tear down their temporary fortifications until something told me to duck. There was no questioning it. I did, and the disk of earth hit the wall, sailing straight over where my head had been not half a second ago. On the ground, I flipped onto my back, and fired a kick at the Earth bender who had approached me from behind, sending him down to the ground, dead, as the strike took him straight in the head.

I would've turned back to finish my work on the wall, but when I had turned to fend off against the Earth Bender, well, I had become preoccupied with an oncoming force of Earth Kingdom soldiers.

I had an idea.

I turned back to the wall, not the one separating me and the earth benders, but the one separating How's camp and the 5th Army. If I could bring that wall down once more, they could come in for the last time. So I waited those 2 and a half second while I knew an army of Earth Kingdom soldiers charged at me behind my back. I missed the first shot. I closed my eyes for a second, exhaled in the next, waited half a second, fired, and the wall came down once more.

So when I turned to face the oncoming force of Earth Kingdom soldiers, it made no difference, for not 1 second later did the wall behind me collapse in its entirety and hundreds of tanks and infantrymen came crashing through from behind me and charging towards their opponent.

And I joined them. I charged forward with them, at the very front of the line.

I cut at soldiers with the sword in my right hand, burning those at a distance who posed a threat all the same. I saw the Earth kingdom archers gathered on a hill near the center of the camp. We had no shields. We weren't in formation, but it didn't matter. I ran to the nearest soldier I could find, cut off his sword hand, fired a blast of fire at his leg, sending him into a kneeling position, and grabbed him, hiding beneath his sagging corpse as the arrows came down, hitting his already dead corpse in place of mine. I threw his body aside, discarding it as more unfortunate soldiers around me, Fire and Earth alike fell to the ground while our tanks moved forward all the same, undeterred, charging straight for the line of Earthen archers.

Then the artillery came down. I hadn't even noticed the first wave of fire. I had grown suspicious by the dwindled numbers of tanks that rolled past me, but was convinced when a tank missing its top half, engine on fire, crew missing the top halves of their bodies, rolled on past me from the last remnants of its engine propulsion, coming to a stop when it hit an earth disk sunk into the ground, half of it in the ground, half above.

The next wave of artillery was easier to notice, particularly when they hit all around me, finishing off soldiers trying to get to their feet both friendly and unfriendly. I had to take out that artillery. _Where the hell is Danev? This is supposed to be his job._ I clambered up the hill where the archers had been, moving past their bodies with an ever-dwindling number of fellow Fire Nation soldiers beside me. And we reached the top of the hill. And ahead, below us, I saw what had happened to the first and second waves of the Fire Nation Armored. Their empty husks lay ahead, dead, demolished, in front of an organized line of Earth Kingdom spearmen, followed my swordsman, benders, and archers in the rear, artillery behind them.

I turned around, and the earth itself opened behind me, earth benders rising from the hells and closing off our retreat. I was getting sick of Earth Kingdom traps. I could heart the yells of the oncoming Earth Kingdom formation beyond the hills as they marched, still in formation, ready to meet our pathetic force, and the Fire Nation army beyond the camp, still probably falling into the trap and going past the walls. Walls that could close at any moment.

I turned to face the earth benders behind us, and fought, gaining their attention while a select group of nonbending Fire Nation soldiers rushed to do what they could in the face of such odds, meeting little success as they were promptly cut down, but I wasn't so unlucky. I cut down the Earth Benders with fire and sword, ignoring those marching towards us from beyond the hill. I cut down two who approached me in a foo's effort to ensure I never reached their rear guard.

It failed

And soon enough, I stood in the center of a line of Earth Benders as some went from their barricade to facing me, but it made no difference. I extended my arms in both directions, and left the fire flow, breaking apart their rocks as they hurdled towards me into thousands of harmless pieces as my flames went through rock, flesh, and bone alike, torching all in my way, and as the last bender went down, their enthralled wall collapsed with nobody left to keep it up.

And I exhaled, readying to turn around to face the real threat as I heard a noise come from behind me, towards the Fire Nation lines. I paid it no mind, but still had that same one question: _Where the hell is Danev?_

A Fire Nation soldier bumped against my soldier as he ran. _Wait, am I facing the wrong direction?_ I wasn't, but he was, as were the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers that had just stood by me. _What changed?_

I heard them yelling at me in words I couldn't here. I could here nothing for that matter. It was all just white noise. _Cowards!_ I wanted to yell, but no words could come out. I was parched, my throat dry, heart rate up, my hands were shaking, I clenched them.

I stood my ground. And they appeared over the hill. I stood. I clenched the sword in my right hand, and I charged forward. They arrived in droves, circling me, but it made no difference. The first I stabbed through the chest, pivoting his body to absorb the blow of another's axe as I turned my body to fire an arc of fire towards 3 oncoming swordsman who fell to the ground, tripping their comrades.

I freed my sword from the first soldier's corpse, throwing fire into the face of the axe man who had struck his comrade. I turned now, with my sword to deflect a swordsman's blow, parrying, slicing along his belly, dropping him to his knees as I fired a blast of fire across my sword arm to hit a charging spearman.

I felt a pain in my side, turned enough to avoid a worse injury, spun to find the swordsman, and made a perfect cut to his throat, taking out a sizeable chunk of it as well. I spun to send another arc of fire at oncoming foes. The fire dissipated in air before it could do any good as an earth hand grabbed at my shoulder, yanking me to the ground, before I could turn the fall into a backwards roll, landing on my legs, dropping my sword, sending two blasts of fire behind me, not bothering to see if I even hit anyone, but the screams served as proof enough.

I grabbed my sword again, using my left hand to send fire to my left, covering my side when a hand stomped on my right hand, sending me further to the ground as another leg kicked my stomach. A hammer man stood above me, but a blast of fire to the throat lit him up and sent him to the ground, Warhammer crashing down at my side.

I abandoned my sword, but stood again, shooting a bolt of fire at an approaching spearman when a pain erupted in my shoulder and I saw the point of an arrow come out from the other side just where I could see it. I turned to fire until another arrow hit my thigh, sending me to the ground, but my shot still hit gold.

I broke the shaft and tried to stand when an even worse pain shot up in my leg and I fell to a knee. Without turning to look, I shot over my shoulder behind me directly towards where his face would have been, and the release of pressure on my leg told me he had fallen, likely missing half a face in the process.

And then another pain, in my side, across my back, in my shoulder. I was on the ground. Hands and knees, and I felt something I never felt before. The world became a blur, then emerged in sudden light, and when that light left, the world around me was on fire.

The bodies lay on the ground around me, still flaming, all instantly dead, none writhing in pain, just dead. Just like that.

And the adrenaline wore off, and I collapsed to the ground. When the world was no longer black, whether it was a minute later, 10, and hour, I was alone.

And ignoring the pain across my body, I stood. _Where was everybody? Where was the Fire Nation?_ I looked around, and over that same damned hill, on top of the wall, the Earth Kingdom banner remained, and I heard the marching, they were still coming.

I tried to stand, to put weight on my legs, but fell. _Stop!_ A voice in my head yelled at me. On my knees, I tried summoning the energy to produce a flame, but there was nothing left inside of me. _Stop!_ It yelled again, but I didn't. I was exhausted. I wanted to lie down and sleep, but that marching was approaching. I could now see the banners rising above the hill. _Run!_

And there was no choice. I ran in no direction. I just ran, ignoring the bolts of pain running up my legs, spine, and head. I ran all the same. _Hide!_ The voice yelled at me. And I found it, the hollowed remains of a burnt-out Fire Nation tank, crashed against a sizeable boulder, likely an Earth Bender's machination. I dived into it, ignoring the stench of the burnt corpses. I tried to look out the tank to see if the Earth Kingdom had seen me, but I felt myself unable to move, as if I were being held back as that same voice yelled _Stay!_

And I couldn't move. Both my mind and my body were stationary. I couldn't have moved if I had wanted to. Adrenaline wearing off, I could now feel the pain. The wounds along my entire body, the arrowheads stuck inside of me, the holes in my body, the scratches along my torso, all of it. The second arrow had already fallen out, but there was one still inside of me, in my side.

I didn't have my sword. I had left it behind. Damn it! I reached into the ashen cockpit, reaching for a knife I could see on the belts of one of the dead crew, removing it, ignoring the dried blood.

I lifted my shirt above my side, finding the wound easy enough, and the top half of the arrow still inside. I gave the half of shaft sticking out a yank and the pain shot through me as though I had taken another hit. I tore of my helmet, unable to see a damn thing, throwing it aside, and biting on the collar of my shirt as I dug the knife into my side, searching for the point of the arrow, trying my damndest to deal with the pain, until I found it, turned and twisted the knife with one hand, grabbing onto the shaft with the other, until finally, it was loose enough, and I pulled. And the world went dark.

/

The town was still aflame. We had made sure of that. Buildings were crumbling now, supports weakened by the flames that weakened stone, burnt wood, and destroyed homes.

There would be no saving them, but that was the idea. Wasn't it?

/

When the world came back to me, the first thing I had wondered was if I were dead. It wouldn't surprise me, because in that moment, the pain had left me. All of it had. My wounds had scabbed, scars that would be there until the end of my days. I was no longer in intense pain as my blood had finally found its permanent residence within me.

What the hell was happening?

And I could stand, no voice around to urge me otherwise. I stepped out of the tank, the sun had shifted, the battle was over, but worse than that, atop the walls of Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom flag remained. The army was nowhere in sight. Where _were they? Had we just not taken down the banners yet?_

But there was one, and only one indicator that told me we hadn't won. Because when I looked towards the inner walls of this hellish city, and I saw that gate, still down, I knew we hadn't emerged victorious. And that same damn question came to mind. _Where the hell is Danev?_

And I questioned myself. _Was the attack even today? Had I dreamed all of this?_ Though the tank I exited and the bodies I saw upon re-entering the battlefield told me otherwise. Stone's Edge, to the north east. That's what they said.

 _Was I even alive right now? Was it all over?_ I walked, going north by the indication of the now setting sun, not yet below the walls of the damned city.

 _Where was Lu Ten? Where was Danev? Where was anyone?_

I met nobody on my way out of the camp. It was although it had been abandoned. _What the hell was happening?_

I continued north. The walls that had surrounded the camp during our attack had been lowered, and I walked past bodies of the battle, friendly and unfriendly. _How many had died? How many were left?_

And I left the camp. And I walked. I walked past destroyed tanks, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. Past bodies of both nationalities. Past destroyed farm houses, small villages, the like.

 _How long was I out? How much had happened? What had I missed?_

And I kept on walking. I was walking as the sun lowered beyond the wall. I was walking as the gray clouds disappeared into the night sky. I walked, until ahead of me, leaning against the wall, I could see it. A town. One that could only be storm's edge. The town was alive. Lit, surviving. _They had to be there. They had to be alright. If the town was alive, they had to be alive._ I smiled, relieved, taking another step forward until something, some **one,** grabbed me from behind, yanking me backwards onto the ground.

I heard the sound of steel against leather, raised my own recovered knife, until my knife stood at his throat and his sword at mine. It was another soldier. One like me.

"Luke?" he asked. "I recognized his voice before his face, that was, at least, until he took of his helmet.

"Dazni?" Of course I remembered him. He was the only person in Citadel who had ever stood up for me. And he was part of Danev's unit. So if he was alive, then Danev must be too. "Your alive." I said.

"Yeah, man. Shit, so are you, but, fuck, you look like shit."

"Yeah. What's going on? Why'd you tackle me?"

"Can't be too careful. It's bad out here. Getting worse."

"Why? Why are you so far out from the town? That's stone's edge, right?"

He paused. It was too dark to see his face, but something in the atmosphere around him changed. "We need to get back to camp. It's bad out here. I'll explain it there."

"You mean Lu Ten will explain it, right?"

He paused mid-way turning away. I could see his head turn as he said, "Just follow me."

And it was enough then to know something was terribly wrong.

There camp was completely unlit. No fires were lit. Everything was pitch black, but its position atop the hill meant it'd be compromised come morning. I knew it, and so did they. And by they, I wasn't referring to the force of 100 Lu Ten and Danev had left with. There were less than 30 of them.

"What's going on?" I asked Dazni by the time we were near the center of the camp. Everybody seemed to be noticing my arrival. They were on edge. That was easy enough to tell. I could recognize a good amount of them. Kids from Citadel. I thought I even recognized a few from far earlier in my life. Were they all Citadel kids from one point or another? "Where were you during the attack?" I asked.

Dazni turned to me once he had enough of an assurance that we were safe, all things together. "We left. On time. 1200. All of us. Then-"

"Then they fucked us." Another voice. Once I was less likely to ever forget. And a face just as unforgettable, obvious even in the light of the night, or lack thereof."

"Zihe. You're back." Dazni said.

"I am." He replied. And he turned to me, and I remembered my last encounter with him. Back in Citadel's gym, I nearly burnt his face off when I bent for the first time. He was my worst enemy back then, before the Earth Kingdom, before all of this. He knew that too. Whatever had happened these last few months, it had taught both of us that the past was the past. "Luke." He nodded.

"Zihe." I responded, nodding. "What happened here?"

"Stone's Edge. They betrayed us. We were marching through. Everything as planned. And they shut the gates, cutting us in half. They would have trapped us all on the other side if Danev hadn't noticed the trap." _Danev._ His name, the mere mention of it had my heart racing. _Why wasn't he here?_

"Was he-"

"Trapped on the other side? Yeah. He was. Him, Lu Ten, and over half of our guys. We saw enough to know they were in trouble, but we had our own problems. Those of us trapped out here, we got ambushed. Half of us got killed. We're all that's left."

"And the rest. Are they-"

"Zihe." Dazni interrupted. "You finished your patrol. What did you see?"

Zihe sighed, looking at me, and looking back at Dazni. "I saw the bodies. The Dai Li stuck around. They put the heads on pikes."

"And?"

"What bodies?" I asked. I got no answer. "What bodies?!"

Zihe looked at me again, and in that moment, I knew that no matter what he felt about me, no matter what happened in the past, there was one thing we had in common. We respected the same men. "I'm sorry, Luke. Danev, Lu Ten, they're all dead. They killed them all.

/

The smoke illuminated by the fire was the only thing visible in the sky. There were no stars to be seen and the wall, from my distance to it, eclipsed the moon, hiding it from view. The smoke was all there was in front of me, rising from that fucking town, leaning against that damn wall, protecting this city of hell.

But it was gone now. We, no, I had made sure of that.

/

I didn't know how much time had passed. I wasn't keeping count. I remember them sitting around me, trying to console me, to reassure me, but it had made no difference. Maybe it would have before I had known the fact, but now, but now it was too late. There was nothing that could be done. It was over. It was over. It was all fucking over.

I wanted to scream, to shout, to yell, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. I was just sitting there. I had no idea what to do. I was lost. Alone.

And finally, sooner rather than later, I was awake enough to notice Zihe who was kneeling in front of me from where I was sitting on a log facing the remains of an old campfire that had been extinguished for hours now, going on a full day.

"They won't get away with this, Luke. They promised us shelter. Food, safety, hospitality, and they tried to kill us. They'll pay for that."

He looked away from me towards where soldiers where putting on gear, gathering weapons, the works. "We can still get justice. We can still avenge them. They don't deserve to hang up there, heads on pikes. It's disgraceful, and they'll all pay for that." He looked as though he was going to say something more until a cry yelling "Incoming!" erupted throughout the camp, and everybody sprung into motion.

Dazni and Zihe raced to the peak of the hill where the scout knelt with a telescope, facing southwest. I followed behind, stalking from a distance.

Dazni confiscated the scope from the scout, watching, saying "Hold up! They're friendly! Tanks! Ours!"

 _Tanks? My squad?_ "Can I see?" I asked Dazni. He knew enough to know I would have an easier time spotting Armored Markings than him, so he surrendered the scopes to me, and I took them.

"So?" Dazni asked. Who are they? Will they help us?"

And I found the tanks, 3 of them, coming straight towards our camp. Even in the night, I could recognize the markings on the tank. The words that read 'Shanzi.' _Boss._ "No." I said. "They won't."

"Then they're useless." Zihe said. "You know them, Luke?"

"Yeah." I said, putting down the scopes. "My old squad."

"Can you convince them?" asked Dazni. "We're going to need help. There could still be Dai Li in the village."

"They won't help us." I said as I handed the telescope back to the original scout.

And by then, the 3 tanks had come up the hill. 3 tanks I noticed. So they too had taken a beating. Maybe they would understand.

But of course, that had been too much to hope for.

Boss came out of the leading tank first, hopping down as Fire Nation soldiers from the camp gathered around, on the defense, trusting nobody. Who could blame them? They had been betrayed once? They'd do anything to stop it from happening a second time.

"Luke!" said Boss. "There you are. We thought you'd be here."

"Why are you here?" I refused to call him Boss. He'd never live to hear me say those damn words. Not again. I'd said it once, a while ago, and he'd held me back. Not this time. Not ever again.

"We thought you'd head up here."

"So you know."

"We know that a lot's happened in the last 12 hours, Luke. A lot of bad, but we're still alive. That doesn't have to change."

"I don't intend for it to. I'm a survivor."

"I know, Luke, and I know what you're thinking. We've gotten word. We know what happened. The Earth Kingdom's already distributed word of it. The battle's lost. The war too, maybe."

And in that moment, I knew what I had to do. Earlier, revenge had been a dream. A hopeless fantasy. Something I'd never dare to do, but now, after hearing that, after how the Earth Kingdom had used their betrayal, their cruelty, as propaganda, well, I'd made my choice.

"You're a coward."

"Luke. It's over. You don't have to stay here. You'll find nothing down there but hatred and regret. You can come with us."

"And go where?! You're defecting, leaving everything behind because of one damn battle?! You giving up after all of this?! After 2 years of fighting just because things are starting to look down?! You'd betray your nation for that?!"

"This revenge of yours." he said. "It'll get you nowhere. It'll only lead to further pain and suffering."

"It wouldn't be revenge. It would be justice."

And he sighed, and his voice stayed that same damn aggravating soft tone as he said "Our nation's eating itself alive. It's not just today, but there's rumors circulating of a coup in the Fire Nation, of assassinations, power grabs, it's not the same Nation anymore, Luke. I'm not your commander anymore, Luke, but please, come with us. We can still do some good in this world."

And I looked around, where 20 plus men stood ready. Men ready to fight for their nation, to avenge their brethren. And in front of me, sat 5 cowards, ready to leave everything behind, abandon their comrades, betray them all in the blink of an eye.

"You're right." I said. "You're not my commander anymore."

"Luke."

"Go."

"You don't have to-"

"I said Go!" And I bent an arc of fire that ended right before them. I didn't want to kill them, but I couldn't stand to see them any longer. Not after what they'd done. I turned around, and only heard as they left.

And what was left of Danev's Unit continued to prepare, for there was still much to do.

The march to Stone's Edge was a quiet one, for there was nothing to say. There was no questioning to be done. We knew what we had to do. We knew what we were here for.

And I stood in front of Stone's Edge, the rest behind me. They'd given me the chance to fire the first shot.

I watched the town where it slept in front of me, street candles lit, by the town asleep aside from that.

I let the rage flow. I let the memories come back to me. Of the friend who saved my life in Citadel, who gave me a home, a purpose, who saved me in the academy on many occasions, who saved my life on the battlefield. I remembered the Commander who saved me from an incompetent Command Structure. Of the charming general's son who inspired thousands with words alone, and whose actions backed him up. I thought of the great men this Kingdom took from me. Of those these people took from me.

The rage inside me flowed. The memories, the hatred, all of it. The energy flowed, and I felt the flames grow in my palm.

And as quickly as it began, it was all over.

The whole world burned around me. The heat came at me in droves as particularly flammable kindling among the remains of the town were sparked and promptly ignited. The screams had all stopped by then. In fact, they had stopped long ago. Not that I had even heard them in the first place. I couldn't listen to it. I couldn't.

I was on the ground, kneeling, as sparks floated off in the air around me, travelling with the breeze away from my handiwork into the open sky.

I wondered who had been the last one to scream. I knew who the first had been. I saw her myself. I killed her myself.

Though the dead had been silent for what felt like an eternity now, I could still hear them. Still hear their screams. Their cries. They screamed when they saw me. They screamed when I saw them. They screamed even as they burnt.

And now, they were all dead. And I was alive.

I knelt in front of what remained of Stone's Edge, a killer, a murderer.

 _What the hell had I done?_

And then the rain started coming down. It started soft as first, but then it picked up in frequency and velocity as the storm came in, and the rain came down.

I stayed there, kneeling on the ground, in front of my own handiwork, quite possibly the first thing I had ever done.

And in front of my eyes, it washed away.

The fires died down, extinguished by the rain. The smoke dissipated, flowing up into the sky, forever to be forgotten, like it was so easy. I don't know what I felt in those moments. I didn't know how to feel. I still heard the screams, still felt the fires, still was choking on the smoke, but when I looked up, it was gone, like my own tears in the rain, unnoticed, forgotten. _But not by me._ I remembered. I would always remember.

I couldn't even tell if I was crying. It was indistinguishable from the storm around me, but all the same, I knelt there, and I shook not from the cold or from fear of what was beyond those walls, but fear of myself. Fear of what I had done. I stills aw all of their faces and the rain kept coming down, but I wouldn't move. I couldn't move. I could just sit there and cry in the rain as the rain came down in droves.

Because even when I was alone, when Reek, the Hornets, Riu, Danev, Lu Ten, and everyone else was gone, there was always one certainty, the rain was there, a life of its own, to stand by me, to wash away what I had done even though I'd always remember, but in that moment of time, as I soaked there, sitting in front of the site of the worst crime I'd ever heard of, myself the culprit, I was forgiven. By whom? I didn't know.

And in that moment, I knew, it didn't have to end like this. Boss was right. He was right, and for some reason, that was the worst feeling of all. That I had missed my chance.


	47. Chapter 45: Endgame: Part 5: Alone

**Luke**

I didn't even know where I was when I woke up. It was morning. I could tell that much, and I felt as though I were dead. Or at least, I was supposed to be.

I opened my eyes, being promptly forced to close them again due to the sun being at just the wrong angle, rising in the east, to go right into my eyes. I was leaned against a rock, not in a particularly comfortable position, but one that apparently been convenient enough to fall asleep in. I couldn't even remember falling asleep. I just remember last night, and, _Oh._

I pushed the thought out of my mind, not daring to remember what I had done, trying my damndest to push it out, but I was hearing it, seeing it, smelling it, tasting it, feeling it all over again. The screams, the fire, the smoke, the cinders, the flames leaving my hand. It was all still there, refusing to leave, and eyes closed, I could see it all the better.

I pushed myself off against the rock that had been my alleged sleeping spot for the night before, sliding down it, and promptly rolling over onto my stomach, facing the ground in a manner that I could open my eyes without fear of the sun, but I opened them to realize the world had gone dark.

I pushed myself off the ground, rising too quickly, head spinning, placing a hand on the rock to support myself to see the world was gray, sky enveloped by one large singular gray cloud save an opening that had paved the way for the sun to resurrect me back into the real world, for better or worse.

I felt horrible, disgusting, sick, dying. My armor was hardly even on me. My entire tunic, leggings, and smallclothes beneath my armor were drenched top to bottom in sweat, sticking to my body no matter how hard I tried to yank them free between the gaps of my armor to catch the breeze, but there was none such to catch. The Earth was still as though time around me had ceased to move.

My armor felt as though it barely fit on my body. The chest piece felt as though it were barely attached to me, sliding off towards my stomach prompting my having to heave it up each and every time, tightening it however I could through the clamps situated immediately above my shoulders. I was able to tighten the right and when I turned to tighten the left, I discovered the source of the problem, being that the left clamp was missing entirely. _Shit._ In addition to that, my leg plates were sliding off as well as my right armpiece. I had no time to worry about that. I was still in the middle of a warzone. I stood up, now free to raise my hand from my earthly support, standing on my own two legs. My eyes still stung, the blot of the sun still branded into my vision, preventing my searching of the sea of death around me, constantly shrouded a good quarter of my vision.

I looked behind me. The wall, unfortunately, still stood there. It hadn't fallen overnight. _What did I expect?_

I knew more than anything I had to discover where I was. I could tell it was the inner wall at the very least judging by its small height in comparison to the outer wall. So I hadn't abandoned the city in its entirety last night. Good. I still had work to do.

I looked back towards the direction of the sunrise, it no longer molesting my view with its concealment behind the sea of clouds, but that didn't stop its trying, beams of light highlighting the edges of the formation, drawing a silver line of sorts, a funny irony in comparison to the shit I was feeling right now. There remained no room for silver lines in my immediate present now.

There was nothing to see towards the east. Just hills. _Same hills as last night? Maybe._

I turned back east. Looking north and south. _Yes. Same hills._

A black funnel of smoke rose from the ground not far away. From where, I sadly knew.

It was a short walk to the scene of my genocide. The fires had finally stopped burning, no doubt doused by the night's rainfall, the evidence of being the muddy terrain and the clouds overhead that promised a second dousing. That thought no longer brought me dread. In the past, a promise of a storm would've had such an accomplishment, but not anymore. The more rain, the more fires getting put out. How could that be bad?

The town was a scorched ruin, wooden structures but ashes, stone buildings collapsed, bones lining the street.

We never did find their bodies. Their heads were all we could find, and none of us had been keen on the idea of returning them to their families. So while the others burned the remains, I didn't partake. I let the experience invigorate me, anger me. The town was already afire, but at that time, I was intent on letting none escape. I went into their houses, searching for anyone left, and- _NO! Don't think about it. It's over. It happened._

I shook my head, turning away from what had used to be Stone's Edge, and turned towards the hills, towards the camp. Maybe they were still there. I had to link back up with another unit. It'd be the surest way of making it back to the Dragon's Camp.

Maybe I should have just left. Put it all behind me. But, after all of this, I had done too much. I had sacrificed too much to just leave it behind. I was going to tear down this city. And if Iroh was preparing for another attack. I would be there, but no more would I let anything like that of last night happen again. Not if I could help it.

For 10 minutes, I went through the hills, searching for any sign of friendlies. There was no scout atop the hill where I had spotted Squad Iron Fire from. And when I scaled that hill, I came to realize it wasn't merely the lookout that was abandoned. The entire camp was empty.

As I went through the camp, it became increasingly obvious what remained and what didn't. The tents remained, the watchtowers as well. The fire had died, but the ashes remained hot. It wasn't doused. It had gone out on its own.

The contents of the camp though, were entirely gone. Now weapons, armor, valuables of any sort remained. All taken. _Looters._ But where were Zihe, Dazni, anyone for that matter. There were no bodies. None I could see at least. The tents were empty, the contents of all looted. Completely empty. Even the mounts were gone. _Damn._ It was going to be a long walk back to the Dragon's Host.

But that walk had to start sooner or later. So I started, stomach empty, parched, tired, sick, sweating from every pore in my body, eyes red, still hearing the damned screams like ghosts yelling at me from beyond the grave. _Hell. Maybe they were ghosts. I'd spoken to them before. Back in Citadel._

I continued walking, not even paying attention to the world around me. As I walked, hours passed, the sun rose, and the antics of the night became visible around me. Burned out farmsteads, signs of small skirmishes: an earth kingdom tank here, a firebender's corpse there.

I continued walking, passing another small farmstead when I heard a noise behind it. Talking. Laughing. _Earth Kingdom. Enemy._ I just knew. I heard a whimpering as well, akin to that of a wounded animal.

I reached for my belt, feeling nothing. I had lost my sword. _Damn it._ I still had two hands. Good enough.

I turned the corner, and in place of a dying animal surrounded by Earth Kingdom soldiers, there lied a half-naked woman in torn rags for clothes surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers. One of whom was practically on top of her, breeches lowered.

 _The hell?_ I walked forwards and two of the nearest Fire Nation soldier became instantly alerted, raising their weapons towards me.

I instinctively raised my hands parallel to my head. I wasn't trying to antagonize anyone, but what the hell were they doing.

"Sir!" The nearest one to me called. "Soldier."

"Ours or theirs?" called a man from behind.

I heard an additional whine from the wounded animal that was no wounded animal but a young girl and a man a recognized all too well, with his scarred face walked past the two, pushing them aside, and smiling probably the most terrifying smile I'd ever seen when he saw me.

"Well holy shit, Luke. You're alive. Looking like shit, but hey, alive!"

"You weren't at your camp." For some reason, that was the only thing that came to mind. _Of course they weren't. They were regrouping with Iroh. Like me._

"Yeah. Sorry we didn't leave you anything behind. You hungry? There's some food in the house."

I looked towards the house. It wasn't aflame, but it had been looted. I could tell that much. I looked behind Zihe, past the woman who was now being restrained by the two soldiers who had encountered me, towards a group of corpses in the distance, one far smaller than the others, a child. I felt my stomach drop.

"Whose house is this?" Thought I already knew the answer.

"Does it matter? They were hiding people who ran from Stone's Edge. For shame, Luke. I thought you get them all."

I looked back towards the woman now. One soldier was holding her to the ground while the other stood behind, lower armor lowered, undoing his breeches.

I looked back to Zihe, afraid to look. "What are you doing to her?"

Zihe looked around as though he had no idea what I was talking about, scoffed and smiled when he saw what I meant, turned back to face me, and said, "Oh. That. Good news is what that is. We found the people who ran from Stone's Edge. They struggled so we killed them. The husband put up a fight, so he died. Dumb idiot. We gave him a chance to leave with his kid, and his wife after we were done with her, but… tsk tsk tsk, he fought. And died. Wife there put up a fight until stupid Zeeji killed the kid." He laughed. "He's crazy, that Zeeji. Anyway, she's not too broken in. You want a shot at her? You're old enough."

I looked beyond him again. She was being pounded into the ground, the soldier behind her not letting up. There was only one thing to say. "Just let her go."

Zihe had also been watching the rape. I could tell, because he hadn't even understood what I said. He just turned back to me, smiling, asking, "What was that, Luke?"

"I said let her go." Louder this time.

And his smile was gone, which somehow, was all the scarier in that instance.

"Fuck you talking about?"

"She didn't do anything to Danev or Lu Ten or the others. She's not responsible for them."

"We will let her go. After we're done here. Is that a problem?"

"She doesn't deserve this!"

And now the two soldiers raping the young woman were facing me, the raper still going about his business. "Fuck's he saying, Zihe?!"

"He's saying we should stop."

"Oh is that right?"

Zihe turned back to me now, angry. "She does deserve this. She's no different from the ones at Stone's Edge."

"They didn't deserve it either! It wasn't them who killed them. It was the Earth Kingdom."

"Oh really? Didn't stop you last night."

"I know. I-"

He was walking towards me now, forcing me to start taking steps back.

"I saw how you went into their houses. You found the one's still partially standing looking for survivors, and oh man, you found 'em. Some you burned in the homes. Some you dragged out to burn them on the streets. What? Are you whimpering right now? You're a killer, Luke. A murderer. These rats don't deserve life. They only deserve death. So tell me again, Luke. Is there something you have to say?"

More men were coming out of the house now, armed, dangerous men, alerted and rendered curious by the commotion outside. 5 in total. I clenched my hand when I saw the woman, helpless on the ground, tears flowing out of her eyes, as she took glances at the corpses of her family. And when she looked at me, I saw recognition. She remembered me from the day her husband aimed a crossbow at Boss's head, and I stood ready to burn their family to the ground. And they pledged to help us _. And they were killed by those they pledged to help._

 _No. Not those they pledged to help. These, whoever the hell they were, they weren't soldiers. Soldiers didn't kill the innocent._ And I remembered last night again. I was no soldier either. Not anymore. There was nothing I could do.

"No." I said, still eyeing Zihe, fists clenched, ready to strike back if he made the first move. "Nothing at all."

But he didn't make the first move. He remembered what had happened last time. "Then get the fuck out of here."

And I left. I walked as far as I could, ignoring her screams, her pleads for them to stop. Finally, the screams stopped. I couldn't tell if it was because I was far enough away, if they had stopped, or she just didn't have it in her to scream anymore.

All the same. I walked away, not daring to turn around and find out.

 **Long Feng**

The King's Court was silent. Nobody had known the course that yesterday's battle had taken. I was the only man alive in the city who knew. Well, excluding my agents. They knew as well as I did, but their lips were sealed. Sealed since the day they became Dai Li. Such was part of their duty. They spoke when spoken to by none other than me alone.

So while the King hid in the rear of his palace, alone with 10 of my "best" agents and his bear, while the bulk of Ba Sing Se's nobility hid in their royal apartments, I stalked the halls od the palace, a wolf in sheep's clothing. It was dead silent. It took the culmination of a willpower within me to not sit the throne. To not name myself Earth King. I had to be honest with myself. I would never do. I would never suffice as a King. Too much interaction. Too much attention. All that time spent in the sun, you could never walk the shadows again. A sacrifice I had no intention of making.

The solitude had its perks though. Prime among them, I didn't have to speak with Kaizar in the solitude of my office. It had worn its use anyway, what with Joo Dee's absence for the last month or so. I couldn't blame her. It had been a rough pregnancy for her.

But I pushed the thoughts out of my head and restored my composure in front of Kaizar were I stood face to face with him in the center of the grand hall, the throne hundreds of feet away despite the fact I was closer to the throne than the other side of the hall's grandiose doors. Oh how I hated those doors. I would have replaced them long ago if the prospect hadn't angered the King so.

"You have a new report?" I asked my Captain.

"Yes sir."

"Then read it to me. I don't have time to sit down and see to it. I have work to attend to."

Such was true. So as he, the ever-diligent captain, read the report by memory alone, without any suspicion of omitting a detail considering my time and experience with him, I walked to my office to recover some final objects and reports I wished to be free of.

"The final casualties of the battles are being counted. The Dragon's attack, a pyrrhic victory but a tactical and moral loss for him, vice versa for us, has resulted in numerous Earth Kingdom casualties, but a near total devastation of the Fire Nation's armored and a near total halt of their momentum."

"Good." I said, proving I was still listening lest he lose some of his detailing. "Go on."

"How's counterattack was less successful. How lost many of his tanks and benders and failed to remove the Fire Nation from their camp, but the attrition that ensued is reported to have weakened Fire Nation morale even further."

"And How's condition?" I asked, praying for a negative response.

"Alive." _Damn._ "He's returned to his camp to re-fortify and prepare for a future Fire Nation attack.

"His numbers?"

"Less than five hundred, but veterans now. 100 benders too. Enough to hold the camp. Do you wish for that to change?"

I smiled. _So Kaizar was loyal. Loyal enough to suggest betraying his nation's army for my ambitions. That's what I liked to see. And as disappointed as I was to learn of How's survival, it would serve a purpose as everything else has._

"That won't be necessary, Kaizar. You say How prepares for a second attack. Will it come?"

"No, sir. Your messages have been relayed. Many of our birds have returned empty-handed so we can assume he got the message. The Dragon knows his son his dead. We mounted the heads at Stone's Edge. The evidence of our involvement has been removed."

"You can always count on the Fire Nation to burn the evidence." I smiled at the prospect of them doing my dirty work for me. My men wouldn't have objected, but I had other uses for them. "What do you know of the Dragon's movements?"

"Rumors say he's been locked in his tent. Refuses to come out, but whispers say he plans to retreat. He's done here."

"And so the Dragon retreats. It was only a matter of time. Well then, Captain. I'd say it's time to commence phase 2. Gather your men here. Inform the Earth King that How and the army has fallen, and he is to be escorted to our underground bunker. Escort him, his bear, and all within the palace to Lake Laogai through the tunnels."

"Yes sir. And those on the streets?"

"Start gathering them. They'll be next."

"Yes sir. Will that be all?"

"Depends. Do you have anything more for me?"

"Yes sir. It's from the First Kingdom Hospital. It's your secretary, Jo Ni, Jodi, something-"

"Joo Dee."

"Sorry, sir."

"Don't be. What of her?"

"She's gone into labor. She's asked for you and her husband."

"Her husband." I already had a bad feeling about this. "Do you have the list of casualties from the battle?"

"Yes sir." He handed them to me.

"Thank you, Captain, now get to work. And try to be convincing. We may be dealing with an idiot, but don't underestimate the power he holds."

"I understand" And he left.

 _I know you do. I trusted Kaizar, but a man with all the knowledge in the world was dangerous no mater how loyal he was. Once this was done, once the king, the nobles, the mere peasants, and the army were satiated, he would be next. He would have to be. There was no other option._

I opened the list of casualties and searched the list. Organized by surnames. _Good._ It wasn't hard to find his name after 7 pages. I had already resolved not to tell her. She would ask for him, no doubt. Beg me to tell her where he was. But for all she knew, he would be on his way.

I clenched the list in my hands. It brought me no pleasure. And to think. Today would almost have been the perfect day.

 **Luke**

The camp was being picked dry. _No. No no no. It couldn't be._

Everybody was running one place or another, most east. _Wrong direction, damnit._ I wanted to yell at them to turn around. To call them cowards, traitors, but all words caught in my throat.

Those not running I tried to talk to, but none would listen. Many were shell-shocked, still hearing the artillery echoes off their trenches from the defense I had only hear rumors of. More were just ignoring me.

I finally managed to catch one, a soldier from the armored by the look of his emblem. "What's happening?" I managed to ask when he finally stopped to talk to me, despite how short the conversation would prove to be.

"We're moving."

"Moving where?"

"Away from here." And he ran off, putting his helmet back on as he ran to catch up to others. _His squad. Where were the tanks? Where was half the camp? Had so many really died? What the hell was going on._

I had no idea where I was walking. Towards the grounds that had previously situated the armored camp, I supposed. As I walked, I saw tents getting torn down. Watchtowers put to the torch. _No. No. This couldn't be happening._

It was evening. I had been walking all day. To come back to this?!

I finally reached the armored camp. Or rather, the remains of the armored camp. It had been hit the hardest. I could see the remains of the battle. The trenches were collapsed. The tanks destroyed and half buried, nearly all of them with a few half-living landships still remaining. Soldiers were picking at remains like vultures at a lion's hour-old victim.

The camps were either collapsed, burnt shells, or already packed. There was nothing usable left. I don't even remember which tent I looked for first. Was it Iron Fire? Was it Squad 17? Hell. Squad 5? I scoffed at the thought. Gan and Gi Gu. It felt like decades ago. It may as well have been. Two old friends. Lost to time, buried underneath it, and kilotons of rubble as well now that I mentioned it. I wondered if those tanks had already been recovered. And if so, who had recovered them? Our guys? Their? Scavies? Who knew?

As for the tanks here though. The worms had them. There would be no further use for them from us. They were gone. And whichever poor bastards were stuck inside when they went under.

There was no point staying here any longer. I turned around too leave. To go, well, somewhere other than here. Where? I couldn't say. Maybe to find another unit. I had no intention of speaking to Iroh right now. I doubted whatever I had to say would be appropriate all things considered. I couldn't go to Boss since the coward was leaving. But as I looked around, it got me wondering who wasn't leaving. All things considered, I wouldn't be surprised if such a number was lower than that of their counterparts.

I continued walking all the same. Small numbers were still numbered. Judging by the corpses I saw on the way here, the Earth Kingdom was down a few thousand men, but then again. So were we. _Whatever. Small numbers are still numbers._

First things first. I needed a new sword. A new suit of armor would be nice, but I didn't have time for commodities. There was a war to end outside. So I ignored my sweat stained rags of clothes, my unfitting armor, my loose helmet, my falling belt, ragged socks, all of it. There were no swords to be found around the camp. All already picked by war opportunists. Sure, Fire Nation steel would sell nicely in the markets. An Earth Kingdom market especially. _Traitors._ I pushed away the thought. "Fuck it." I said to myself. "Who needs a sword anyway? I didn't need them before."

I pushed myself off the ground of the armory tent where I had just been browsing to bump my back into the chest of a soldier even smaller than me who nearly fell backwards. When I turned around, he was just a kid, struggling to stand, panting for air.

"What do you want?" I asked.

And between breaths, he managed to say, "General Iroh. He said. He said he's looking for you."

 _General Iroh? Me?_ "What does he want me for?"

"I don't know. Just that. He wants to see you."

 _Shit. I disobeyed orders. What I did last night. He knew._

"Oh. Okay. Thank you."

"Yeah. No problem. Hey?"

"Yeah?"

"Were you there?"

My fists clenched. How many knew?

"At the battle yesterday afternoon. The attack."

My fists unclenched. "Yeah. I was."

"What happened."

There was nothing more to say in the instance. Poor kid already should have known. "We lost, kid."

I passed by him without another word. There was nothing more to say.

The camp felt even more empty when I left the armory tent, as though a plague were making its way through, ridding the camp of life wherever it went. It wasn't hard to find the General's tent. It was where it had been for the last few weeks, but now it stood alone, a single red pavilion amongst a sea of brown ground where grass had ceased to grow beneath the cover of our camp. A sad sight if anything.

There were no royal guards at the tent now. _Had they left too? Was there nobody left I could trust?_

I shook my head, throwing away the idea of it as I made my way through the tent openings. And the sight that awaited me was as I should have expected but didn't all the same for fear of what it would mean.

I didn't stand in front of General Iroh, the Dragon of the West in that moment. Man who broke through the walls of Ba Sing Se. I stood in front of a father who had just lost his only child and all he held dear in the world. And I broke my salute when I realized he wasn't even facing me, but facing the rear of the tent, holding a parchment in his hand which became clearer as a portrait as I approached the desk.

It was such a portrait. One of his son. And I was at a loss for words. I had no idea what in Raava's name to say. I was totally and utterly lost, for what now felt like the millionth time.

"General Iroh?" I asked, hoping to spur him, wondering if he was even awake. I saw his head move, not in acknowledgement, but as though he were shaking. "I. I am so sorry. About your son. About the battle. About everything."

He was silent. Dead in every way save a heartbeat.

"I swear to you, General. This isn't over. I will not leave until Ba Sing Se has fallen. I swear on everyone I know who's died here. On everyone who's died to bring us this far. For your son, for my closest friend, for everyone."

And he spoke. The one word I hadn't expected. "Why?"

"General?"

"So more can die? So you can have more names to swear on? Why?

"I. I don't understand."

"I know you don't." He began to turn, and I could see the tears still rolling down his face, landing on the parchment held beneath him. "You don't understand. I do not blame you. You're still young. Naïve in your own way despite that you've already seen things nobody my age should deserve to see in a lifetime."

"I'm fine."

"No. You're not. None of us are."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you every wonder why we're here? Tell me, Luke. Do you know why we're here?"

 _Was this a test? A trick? A test of loyalty. Because I knew the answer. And I would stand by that answer._ "Because this war is almost over. Because we can end it and win it here and stop the suffering that's been going around the world for almost a hundred years."

"See? You are naïve. We're here because my grandfather started this war. We're here because when I heard of the impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se, I resolved to tear it down. It became my life goal to prove everybody wrong. To enter this city and win this war for my nation. I allowed thousands of men to go with me because they respected me. Because they believed me to be able to do as I claimed. I allowed my son, my own blood to come along because he begged me for the chance to prove himself. Now. He, and thousands of men more are dead. Because I wanted to prove myself."

"You can't blame yourself. We Knew what we were getting into. We knew what lay ahead."

"Did you? Did you know that when hardly a year ago you were sitting comfortably in a Fire Nation classroom, learning of our 'great conquests'? No. You, a kid of twelve years, are here because we've become so desperate that we're sending children to die in our place."

"We all have our duty."

And I thoughts I could catch a glimpse of a small smile on his face. A sad smile.

"Duty." He echoed. "And who is your duty to?"

"To the Fire Nation, sir."

"And what of its ruler?"

"And him too."

"Last night, I received word of my son's death. This morning, a hawk from the Fire Nation tells me my father died in his sleep."

 _And it all made sense now. Of course he couldn't stay here. He was to become Fire Lord, but, without, no._

"So. So that makes you Fire Lord. Right?"

"No."

"No?"

"My father's dying wish was for my brother to be crowned in my place. Fire Lord Ozai."

"But. The title belongs to you. Aren't you going to fight for it?"

And that same answer. "No."

"Why?"

"Because I have no reason to be anymore. I was never made to leave the Fire Nation. I would have abdicated the title to my son within a year's time. And now, my son is dead. The last hope for me, and for the Fire Nation."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the hope for our nation died along with my son yesterday."

"But your brother-"

"Will destroy our country."

"Who. Who else knows?"

"Everyone."

"So the retreat, the desertions-"

"Are of those with enough sense to leave before it's too late. And you would be wise to leave as well."

 _And the last source of solace in this army abandoned me in the blink of an eye._ "What?"

"Why did you join the Fire Nation, Luke?"

"I. Because I was brought out of the slums. Because I was dropped off into their schools."

"I heard of the school. You could have escaped at any moment. You could have left with your other friends from the street. Why didn't you?"

"The Fire Nation saved my life. They gave me a home. A purpose."

"They turned you into a soldier."

"I wasn't meant to be anything else."

"Why? What is it about being a soldier that speaks to you? What is a soldier to you? Who are you?! What are you?!"

He was yelling now. He was fully facing me, standing though I never noticed him leave his chair. He was leaning over his desk, staring me in the eyes when he asked that question. So I said the only definition of a soldier I still believed to be true. "Being a soldier is about defending those who are unable to defend themselves."

And his voice went soft again as he said, "Then you must leave. My father. He was not a good man. He waged the war harder than his father did. Killed more too. He attempted to wipe out the Southern Water Tribe. He brought misery to the lives of millions, but he wasn't his second son. He was a good man to those in his nation. He cared for those under him. He encouraged equality for all who pledged themselves to the Fire Nation, and he always believed that after the war, warfare would cease to exist. That the world would finally exist as one, at peace.

"My brother. He took the worst of his father and abandoned the good. He would burn the world to a crisp, his own people included if he could be king of the ashes. This is not somebody you desire to serve."

"Then I'll serve you. You can save your nation. The people love you. I know from the soldiers alone. You have their respect. Their loyalty."

"I no longer desire the power."

"But the people desire you. You can save them."

"I cannot save my people. No more than you can. You, however, have an opportunity I don't. You can leave. You can choose to make your own decisions. You can refuse to serve a mad ruler. I don't have this opportunity."

And my world was shattering all around me. I had walked into this tent, expecting to find one last tether to everything I held true in the world, but now even that was pushing me away. I was in shock. Everything around me was spinning in circles, laughing at me, calling me an idiot, calling me lost, alone. They were right. Everything around me was falling apart. The earth was breaking open, swallowing Iroh, the shelves, chairs, tables, maps, reports, tent, all of it except for me. And just like in Citadel, I was alone again. Everyone around me dead or gone, abandoning me. But I had been wrong before. Danev was still alive. Now though, everything truly was lost.

And I was on the verge of tears, standing there in front of him where he stood, his son painted on a sheet of power on the desk in front of him, a testament to a world lost to time, like everything else.

"Where will you go? What will you do?" I asked, restraining myself from crying, knowing I lacked any rain to shroud my pain.

"I may not be able to save my nation, but I can try to save my family. I have a niece and a nephew. I have been gone from them for too long and I fear what my brother is doing to them. I must try to help them. Help them both. I may not be able to change my brother, but I can change his children."

"And where will I go?"

"Your old squad, what's left of it, Iron Fire, they are on the outskirts of the camp, no more than a mile out. They're waiting for you."

"How do you know-"

"I told them to leave. My brother doesn't deserve good people like them under his thumb. They're better off without him. Many of my men are."

"But we'd be defectors. Traitors." _We. How was I already using that word?_

"No. You'll be given honorable discharges. It'll look suspicious, but so long as it doesn't taint their record of letting no defectors escape, the Fire Nation will accept it."

I stood there, speechless, a whole new road opening next to a road that was collapsing right in front of me, like the outer wall of Ba Sing Se, but when the wall had fell, it had spelled out hope and opportunity. Now. Now it was the end of a road. One I had no idea how to live without.

"Luke, you weren't made for the Fire Nation. There's more to yourself than you know. You're being given the opportunity many aren't. You still can hold the Fire Nation close to your heart, but the Fire Nation you know doesn't exist anymore. It may again someday, but for now, it's time to leave."

"But you're wrong. The things I've done. I've come too far to be anything else. The things I've done-"

"Are in the past. The past does not define who we are. Only you can do that. The future is always open to you. Never let anybody decide what your future is to be, for only you can make such a decision."

I breathed out, on the verge of tears, realizing in that moment there was no other choice. This was the way of things. This was the way my life was heading. I had to give it up. Surrender it all. Everything I had ever held dear to me. "Which way is my squad?" _My squad._

"To the northeast. They told me they'll leave by sunset. But before you leave, I have some last things for you."

He took out a number of items from his desk. _So he knew this would happen all along. How long had he been waiting for me to come back?_

And he took out a number of items. First, an official looking document already laden with signatures. "The papers for your discharge," he explained. "You will not be labeled an enemy of the state. This is your clean slate. Your life is yours for the choosing." I signed the papers, sliding them aside just as he took out a rank patch, one of a lieutenant. "The discharge isn't finalized until it's sent. I'd thus like to name you lieutenant of the Fire Nation. A good status to retire on.

"I. I don't deserve this."

"You deserve this more than anybody else I've made lieutenant in my career."

And he took out a sheathed knife. A knife I recognized. "Is that?" I began asking.

"You friend. He asked me to give this to you. He said you refused to take it when he left. He didn't know if he would ever come back, so he asked me to give it to you if anything happened to him." And I could see his tears again, the knowledge still fresh in his mind of his son's death.

I accepted the knife, unsheathing it, revealing the intricate patterns on the blade. A blade I'd already promised myself to hone every day until I died.

"You had a good friend." Iroh said.

"The best."

"I'm glad to know my son was in good company until the end."

"They went down with a fight," I said, sheathing the blade. "I know that much."

I saw nothing else waiting for me, my undeserved gifts having expired. I turned to leave the tent until he said, "One last thing."

I turned around, not sure what to expect, until I saw the Pai Sho tile held on his palm, extended towards me. _A White Lotus?_

I took it, not sure what else to do. "I don't play."

"You don't have to. You're going to be on your own now, Luke. It's time for you to discover who you are."

"What are you talking about? Why does everybody know more about me than I do?" I asked, my mind going back to everything Raava had told me the night of the winter solstice that was approaching once again as time went by.

"Because it's something only you can find out on your own. Something that nobody can tell you. Take this. There are those in this world who still believe it can be saved. People like them will help you. I believe you have already met one of them. Show them this tile, tell them I have sent you, and they will help you on your journey."

"I've already met one of them? Who?"

"I have told you everything I can for now. We will meet again, but now, you must go. I have a son to grieve and a battleground to retreat."

I turned to leave, opening the tent, letting the sun shine in when I heard Iroh say "Good luck to you, Luke. We will meet again."

I turned to face Iroh, still my commander until the document was sent back to the Fire Nation. I saluted him, standing at full attention, saying, "I hope so, General. It's been a pleasure to serve at your side."

And he saluted me back.

I turned, opening the tent flaps, letting the light in, blinded by it, as I left the tent for a path I had no knowledge of, abandoning everything I had every known. And once again, I was alone.

 **Long Feng**

The First Kingdom hospital was in the upper district. Nearly completely abandoned as anyone of note was currently being transported to Lake Laogai or being rounded up for delivery.

The hospital was being run by only a handful of doctors and nurses with its only security being hired guards. They were lucky I had stopped the rioting directly outside this district or they'd all be goners.

The hospital was nearly empty. Anyone who had been injured on our side was dead and anyone who had been injured outside was a rioter dying of their wounds at this very moment. And there was only one patient. And I was led directly to her.

I received the full situation report on the way there. They had been forced to cut her open to receive the child, who was poorly nutritioned and unlikely to live. Joo Dee herself, she was dying.

I found her on the hospital bed, her stomach still swollen, already stitched shut. _No. The doctor must've been wrong. She looked fine. She wasn't dying. She would be okay._ My sense however, told me otherwise. We've been starved of food and medicine by the Fire Nation fleet. She would never make it.

I held her hand where it rested on the side of her bed and she turned her head to see me at her side. Her smile was the sweetest thing I had seen in years. A smile I hadn't even seen when she acted as my secretary. This smile was different. She was a mother now.

"You made it," she said, smiling. I knew you would.

"Of course I did. You didn't think I'd let such a loyal servant be alone, did you?"

"Of course not. I know you better than that."

 _I wish I was._

"Where's my baby?" she asked.

I turned to the nurse and prayed Joo Dee didn't notice the look she gave me. One of fear and complete and utter defeat. So the child hadn't made it.

"Where my baby girl?"

"They're feeding her right now. You'll have her soon."

"Good. Let them feed her. I was so scared about her. That she wouldn't make it. She's a fighter, I can tell. Like her father. Where is he?"

 _Why? Why did she have to die alone?_ "He's." I swallowed. "He's on his way."

"Oh. Good. I'm so glad you're here. I'm sorry I was gone for so long."

"Don't be. You were missed, but we all understand."

"I'm. I'm sorry I couldn't have been there." She was sniffling now. "I really hope my family gets here soon."

"They will," I said, holding her hand all the tighter. "They'll be here soon."

"I wish I would have gotten the chance to help you more. Maybe then the Fire Nation wouldn't have won."

So the rumor's already spread. I knew I should have defended the rumor, but in that moment in time, it made no difference to my plans, and I was not about to let her pass thinking she had failed in any way.

"The Fire Nation hasn't won. We won. You won."

"What do you mean?"

"We did it. Everything is going exactly as we planned. You did it."

"I wish I could stay. I wish I could stay to help you."

"Where are you going?"

"You know where I'm going." She sniffed, a tear rolling down her face. "I'm sorry. I wish I could still help you."

"Don't talk life that." I held her hand in both of mine, closing the distance between us as I lied through my teeth and said, "You'll be fine. You'll stay to help me. You'll stay to save your Kingdom."

And that was the last thing she heard. She shut her eyes after that and ended it there. She died in my arms right then and there. The doctors didn't attempt to bring her back. She was gone. I bent over to kiss her brow and I was in Lake Laogai.

I stood next to Captain Kaizar, in front of our King. No. My King.

"Is it done?"

"Yes sir. He's ready to be activated on command."

"And the rest?"

"The same. All waiting activation and re-assignment."

"Good."

I walked out of the room, him by my side, leaving an empty husk of a man behind. I had to make sure I let him keep his memory of Bosco. Anything to keep him submissive. He was a stubborn one. I didn't envy Kaizar's task in wiping him, but he had gotten it done.

And his work here was near over. We walked through the tunnels, side by side, waiting to answer any questions I had. The doors to each and every room were open, revealing groups of people, one for noble men, one for noble women, peasant men, peasant woman, soldiers, advisors, all of them.

"Did you already ready the unit I asked for?"

"Yes sir. They're wiped and ready for re-programming as you demanded. Would you like to start with them?"

"Yes. Take me to them."

And to them he led me. He closed the steel door behind him and in front of me stood 50 women of varying heights, looks, colors, everything. Nothing unifying them except for one thing. They shared the same name.

"How do I begin?"

"I'll ring this bell and you'll say what you wish for them to say. It will end when I ring it again."

"Good. Then let's begin."

"Yes sir."

He stalked to the table near the back-right corner of the room, grabbed the bell off of the table, and gave it a single perfect ring. And in one unanimous moment, the eyes of every woman in the room opened and their pupils dilated, suddenly activated.

I breathed in and began.

"I'm Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se."

 **Luke**

It was near sundown. I prayed I wasn't too late, but I wasn't.

I found their lookout perched where Iroh had said they were, a mile to the northeast, perched on a small hill overlooking the camp.

No words were demanded to be said in that moment. I ascended up the hill, all belongings I had in a small pack attached to my back, new rank insignia on my shoulder, all valuables held tight.

I stood in front of them now, begging for them to take me in. After everything I had done.

There were no objections to be had. They smiled, patted me on the back, took my stuff, loading it into a tank, not saying a word. I appreciated them all the more for it.

And as I stood there, as they loaded their gear and themselves into the three tanks they had, gifts from General Iroh to help us find our way, I collapsed to the ground, onto my knees, looking behind me at the past I was leaving behind, wondering one last time if I was making the right decision.

I settled on deciding that I would never truly know, but in that moment, I felt only one thing. Emptiness. I felt more alone than ever before despite the fact I was surrounded by smiling men taking me in without a second thought. I was leaving everything behind. Everything I had ever known.

And so, no longer hidden by the rain, atop a hill overlooking my past, I cried. For what, I didn't know. For Danev, Lu Ten, the Fire Nation, my past, my future? I had no clue. But I cried. There were no sounds. Only tears. Because never before in my life had I felt so utterly lost.

End of Book II: Warfare


End file.
